Screen recorder online, free and private
Record a browser tab, an app window or your whole screen, with your voice, the tab’s sound and an optional webcam bubble in the corner. The recording is made in your browser and never uploaded.
Pick your options, then choose what to share.
Your browser shows its own picker. Nothing is uploaded.
Starts after you pick what to share, so you have time to switch windows.
- File format
- Browser default
- Estimated size
- about 38 MB per minute at 1080p
How to record your screen online
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Choose your audio
Leave Tab or system audio ticked to capture the sound of what you share. Tick Microphone to add your voice, pick the mic, and check the level bar moves when you talk.
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Add a webcam bubble (optional)
Tick Show my camera in a corner. Pick the corner, size and shape. You can move it while you record, for example when it covers a button you need to show.
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Choose what to share
Press Choose screen and record. Your browser opens its own picker: pick a tab, a window or a whole screen. To record a tab’s sound in Chrome or Edge, keep the tab audio switch on in that picker.
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Record
After the countdown, recording starts. Switch to what you want to show. Pause and resume as needed. The timer and live file size are on this page.
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Stop and download
Press Stop here, or use the browser’s Stop sharing bar; either one ends the recording. The take appears in the list below with a player and a Download button.
Which audio can your browser record?
Your microphone works in every desktop browser. Sound from the screen itself is a different story: it depends on the browser, the operating system and what you share. This table follows MDN compatibility data (checked November 2026), plus Addpipe’s tests for macOS (February 2026).
| Browser and system | Tab audio | Whole-screen system audio |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome or Edge on Windows | Yes | Yes, when sharing the entire screen |
| Chrome on ChromeOS | Yes | Yes, when sharing the entire screen |
| Chrome on macOS | Yes | Sources disagree. MDN lists tab audio only; Addpipe found a system audio option from Chrome 141 on macOS 14.2 or later |
| Chrome on Linux | Yes | No (MDN) |
| Firefox | No | No |
| Safari on Mac | No | No |
If you ask for audio and none comes through, the recorder tells you after you pick what to share. To record a video or call with its sound on a Mac, share it as a Chrome tab.
What this screen recorder does
Tab, window or full screen
Tell the picker what you want first, then choose the exact tab, window or display. In Chrome you can switch to another tab mid-recording from the sharing bar.
Mic and tab audio in one track
Your voice and the screen’s sound are mixed into one audio track, so they stay in sync and play in any video player.
Webcam bubble
Your camera is drawn into a corner of the video as a circle or a rectangle, in three sizes. It is part of the file, so there is nothing to line up in an editor later.
Countdown after you pick
The countdown starts once you have chosen what to share, which gives you a few seconds to switch to the right window.
Stops with the share
If you end sharing from the browser bar or close the shared window, the recording stops and is saved. You do not lose the take.
Several takes, no upload
Each take is listed with its length, format and size. Download what you want and delete the rest. Nothing leaves your device.
How to record a tutorial people can follow
Screen tutorials go wrong in predictable ways. A few minutes of setup fixes most of them.
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Write down the steps first
List every click in order. You do not need a full script, but a list stops you from wandering and saying “wait, where was it”.
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Clean up the screen
Close tabs and apps you will not use, hide desktop files, and turn on Do Not Disturb so chat and email pop-ups do not end up in the video.
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Make things bigger
Zoom the browser to 125–150% and raise the font size in your editor or terminal. Viewers often watch on a phone, where 100% text is hard to read.
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Share a window, not the whole screen
A single window or tab keeps notifications and other apps out of the frame, and it records at the window’s size, which keeps files smaller.
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Move the mouse slowly
Pause on each thing before you click it and say what you are about to do. Fast cursor movement is the hardest thing to follow on video.
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Record in short parts
One take per step or chapter is easier to redo than a 30-minute single take. Use Pause when you need to look something up.
Tips for a clean screen recording
- Wear headphones when you record your voice and the tab’s sound together. Otherwise the mic picks up the speakers and you hear an echo.
- Check the mic level before you start. Normal speech should fill about half to three quarters of the bar.
- Keep this tab open with the webcam bubble on. This page draws the bubble into the video. You can switch to other tabs and apps; just do not close it.
- Mind the file size. We ask the browser for about 5 Mbps at 1080p, so a minute is roughly 38 MB and ten minutes roughly 380 MB. Sharing a 4K screen uses a higher bitrate and bigger files.
- Record a 10-second test. Play it back with sound. It catches a muted mic, missing tab audio or the wrong window.
- Avoid sharing this tab. It shows the preview inside the preview. Share the tab or window you want to show instead.
Privacy, phones and file formats
The recorder uses features built into your browser: getDisplayMedia for the screen and MediaRecorder for the file. The video stays in memory in this tab until you download it. Nothing is sent to Short.now, and there is no account. Takes vanish when you close or reload the tab, so download them first.
Phones are limited. Android browsers do not offer screen capture to web pages, and on iPhone and iPad it arrived with Safari on iOS 27 (per MDN compatibility data, checked November 2026). On a phone, the built-in recorder is the better choice: Screen Recording in Control Center on iPhone, or Screen record in Quick Settings on most Android phones.
Safari and current Chrome and Edge usually record MP4; Firefox usually records WebM. The panel shows the format before you start. YouTube takes both. For apps that need MP4, convert WebM with HandBrake or VLC.
For a talking-head video instead of a screen, use the webcam recorder. To read a script while you record, try the camera teleprompter.
Recorded a long walkthrough? Get Shorts out of it.
Short.now finds the moments worth sharing in a long recording, reframes them to 9:16 and adds captions, so one tutorial becomes a set of Shorts, Reels and TikToks.
Questions
Yes. No sign-up, no watermark, and no time limit set by us. The browser records, so the limits are your device memory and disk space.
It records your microphone in every desktop browser. Tab audio works in Chrome and Edge. Whole-screen system audio works in Chrome and Edge on Windows and ChromeOS; on macOS it depends on your Chrome and macOS versions. Firefox and Safari do not capture screen audio.
Yes. Tick Show my camera in a corner before you start. Your camera is drawn into the recording as a bubble, and you can change its corner, size and shape while you record.
In Chrome and Edge, the picker has a switch to share the tab’s audio. If it was off, stop and start again with it on. Window and screen shares do not include sound on every system; see the table above.
Android browsers do not support screen capture from a web page. On iPhone and iPad it needs Safari on iOS 27 or later. The built-in screen recorder on both systems works without a browser.
No. The recording is made and kept by your browser on your device. It only leaves when you download it.
There is no limit set by the page. The recording is held in memory, so very long takes can slow down older computers. At 1080p, expect about 38 MB per minute. For long sessions, record in parts.
