What System Audio Recording Is, and How getDisplayMedia Makes It Possible
"System audio" or "internal audio" means whatever sound your computer is currently outputting: a browser tab playing music, a video conference, a game's soundtrack, a notification. This is different from microphone recording, which only captures sound waves that physically reach a mic in the room. A standard microphone API cannot touch this internal stream, so browsers expose a separate mechanism called getDisplayMedia — the same API built for screen sharing in video-call apps.
When a page requests getDisplayMedia with audio enabled, the browser opens its native screen, window, or tab picker and adds a checkbox that lets you share the audio track alongside the video. Tools that only need sound, including this one, still trigger that screen-share picker; it is the only door the browser provides into the system's audio output. Once you grant permission, the browser hands the page a live audio stream, and a WebAssembly encoding engine — the same MediaBunny-based engine behind the standard audio recorder — writes it straight to a file on your device, with no server round-trip. In short, it lets you record audio from your speakers — everything your computer plays — with no extra software to install.
What Your Browser and Operating System Can Actually Capture
Support for system audio capture is not uniform, and the gaps come from the operating system, not from any particular website. Windows exposes full system-audio mixing to the browser, and recent Chromium browsers on macOS do the same — you can share the entire screen with sound, or share a single tab. Firefox implements the checkbox but with rougher edges, and Safari does not expose system audio at all. The table below is the fastest way to check your setup before you start.
| OS / Browser | System Audio Capture | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Windows — Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera | Full system audio | Choose "Entire Screen" to capture every sound the PC produces, not just one tab. |
| macOS — Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera | Full system audio | Recent Chromium on macOS can share the whole screen with sound. If the audio option isn't offered, share a single browser tab instead. |
| Windows / macOS — Firefox | Partial | The "Share audio" checkbox exists but is less reliable, especially for tab audio. |
| Any OS — Safari | Not supported | Safari's getDisplayMedia omits system audio entirely; use a Chromium browser instead. |
| Linux — Chrome, Edge | Usually works | Depends on the desktop's audio server (PulseAudio or PipeWire); most modern distros behave like Windows. |
On Windows, use Chrome, Edge, Brave, or Opera and choose "Entire Screen" for anything system-wide. On a Mac, recent Chromium browsers let you share the entire screen with its sound, just like Windows; if the audio option doesn't appear on your macOS version, share a single browser tab instead, which always carries its audio. Safari users should switch browsers for this feature specifically; it is not a settings issue, it simply is not implemented.
How to Record Internal Audio, Step by Step
Click "Record system audio" to trigger the browser's share picker, then choose what to capture: "Entire Screen" for full-system sound on Windows (and recent Chromium on macOS), or the specific browser tab playing your source, which captures that tab's audio reliably on any platform. The picker shows thumbnails of open windows and tabs — pick the one running the audio you want.
The step that trips up almost everyone the first time is the audio checkbox. Below the list of screens and tabs, the picker shows a small toggle labeled "Share audio." It is unchecked by default in most browsers. Skip it, and you'll get a silent recording even though the screen share itself succeeds — this is the single most common cause of a blank track, and it has nothing to do with your microphone or speakers. Tick it, then click "Share" to start.
Once the stream is live, a real-time level meter confirms audio is flowing before you commit to a long recording. Pause and resume are available mid-session, so you can skip a silent stretch or step away without stopping the capture. When you're done, stop the recording, pick your export format, and download the file directly.
Recording Your Microphone and System Audio Together
Toggling "Also record my microphone" mixes your mic input with the captured system audio into a single track, rather than producing two files you'd have to sync later. This is the setup for narrating over a screen recording, reacting to a video, walking through a tutorial with live commentary, or laying a voiceover on top of background music playing in another tab. The mix happens in real time as you record, so the exported file is ready to use immediately.
Because this overlay depends on your microphone working correctly alongside the system-audio stream, confirm the mic itself before starting anything longer than a quick take. Run a check at microphone-test.org first — it shows immediately whether the browser can see the device and whether input levels look reasonable. If the microphone shows no signal, Windows users should work through the Windows 11 microphone troubleshooting guide to check privacy permissions and default-device settings, while Mac users should follow testing and fixing a microphone on Mac, which covers the permission prompt that silently blocks browser mic access.
One practical note: keep speaker volume moderate when using the overlay. If system audio plays loud enough for the microphone to pick it back up, you'll get a faint echo bleeding into the mic channel. Headphones eliminate this and are the simplest fix if a test recording sounds doubled.
Real Uses for Recording Audio From Your Computer
The most common use is saving audio from a video or stream you're watching, for your own later listening — a lecture, a webinar, a set from a live-streamed concert. Close behind that is capturing a meeting or call: if your conferencing app has no built-in recording, or you only have access as a participant rather than a host, running this tool alongside the call captures the full audio of the discussion. For calls specifically, it helps to confirm your own mic is being picked up correctly beforehand — the Zoom microphone fix guide and the Google Meet microphone fix guide both cover the permission and device-selection issues that stop the other side from hearing you.
Other frequent uses include grabbing a short sound clip for reference or editing, recording game audio for a highlight reel, and archiving a podcast episode you're listening to in a tab so you can keep it offline.
A brief legal note belongs here. Recording audio for personal, private use — re-listening to a lecture, keeping a copy of your own meeting, capturing your own gameplay — is generally uncontroversial. Redistributing or publishing copyrighted material you've captured this way is a different matter and can violate copyright law or a platform's terms of service, particularly for music, film, and paid streaming content. Recording a call that includes other participants also raises consent questions that vary by jurisdiction. When in doubt, tell the other participants you're recording and check the platform's policy first.
Choosing a Format and Quality
The tool exports to MP3, WAV, M4A/AAC, OGG, WebM/Opus, or lossless FLAC, all encoded on-device through the same WebAssembly engine used across the site's other tools. MP3 at a standard bitrate is the safest default for anything you'll share or store casually. WAV and FLAC are lossless: pick these when you plan to edit the recording afterward, since re-encoding a compressed file repeatedly degrades quality, or when archiving something you never want to touch again. M4A/AAC suits Apple devices and typically beats MP3 at an equivalent size, while OGG and WebM/Opus are efficient, web-native formats worth considering for browser-only playback.
A reasonable rule of thumb: record in FLAC or WAV if you intend to trim or clean up the file afterward in the audio editor, then convert down to MP3 or AAC with the audio converter once you're happy with the cut. If a lossless capture ends up too large to share, the audio compressor re-encodes it at a lower bitrate without another manual export. The site's guide to choosing the best audio format for recording goes deeper into bitrate and codec trade-offs.
The On-Device Privacy Model
Everything described above happens locally in the browser tab. The getDisplayMedia stream never leaves your machine; the encoding engine runs as WebAssembly inside the page, not on a remote server; and the finished file is written straight to your downloads folder. There is no account to create, no file that transits a network in either direction, and nothing retained once you close the tab. This mirrors the model used by the standard microphone audio recorder and the rest of the site's tools — the only difference here is which audio source the browser is asked to expose.
Troubleshooting: "I Shared My Screen but There's No Sound"
This is by far the most common issue, and it almost always traces back to one of a few causes. First, check whether "Share audio" was actually ticked in the picker — it resets to unchecked every time you open a new share dialog. Second, if a whole-screen or application-window share came through silent, share a specific browser tab instead — tab audio is always available and is a dependable fallback on any platform, including macOS. Third, make sure the source tab itself isn't muted at the tab level — most browsers let you mute an individual tab independently of system volume, and a muted tab shares no audio regardless of what you tick.
If none of that explains it, the problem may sit further upstream in the operating system's audio routing. The site's dedicated walkthrough on recording system audio covers platform-specific quirks in more depth, including virtual audio devices and multiple output devices. If the issue is actually your microphone rather than the system-audio side — the overlay track is silent while the system audio recorded fine — start with the microphone troubleshooting hub, or the browser-specific guide for fixing a microphone in Chrome and the Firefox microphone fix guide, where partial system-audio support sometimes gets mistaken for a mic problem.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I record audio from my computer?
Open this page, click "Record system audio", choose a screen or a browser tab in the picker, and tick "Share audio". The browser then streams your computer's sound to the page, where it is encoded into a file you can download — all on your device, with nothing uploaded.
Can I record system audio on a Mac?
Yes. Recent Chromium browsers — Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera — on macOS let you share the entire screen with its sound, or share a single tab; tick "Share audio" in the picker. If the whole-screen option doesn't offer audio on your macOS version, share a specific browser tab instead, which always carries its audio.
Why is there no "Share audio" option in Safari?
Safari's screen-share implementation does not include an audio track at all, on any version of macOS. Use a Chromium-based browser such as Chrome, Edge, or Brave instead.
Can I record my microphone and the system audio at the same time?
Yes — turn on "Also record my microphone" before starting, and the two sources mix into one exported file. Run a quick check at microphone-test.org first to confirm the mic is being detected correctly.
Does the recording ever get uploaded anywhere?
No. The audio stream and the encoding both stay inside the browser tab; nothing is sent to a server, and no account or sign-in is required.
Which export format should I pick?
Use WAV or FLAC if you plan to edit the file afterward, since lossless formats survive re-encoding without quality loss. Use MP3 or M4A/AAC for a smaller file you'll just share or store as-is.