Keyboard simulator

What this keyboard simulator does

This is an online keyboard simulator: a browser tool that reproduces how a real mechanical keyboard looks and sounds while you type. Choose a switch from the menu, then type on your own keyboard or tap the on-screen keys. Every keystroke plays that switch's press and release sound, and the matching key animates as it actuates. It runs entirely in your browser, so there is nothing to install and no account to make.

Switches get bought blind far too often. Reviews describe sound with adjectives like thocky, clacky and creamy, and none of that tells you whether Cherry MX Blues will annoy the person sitting next to you, or whether Gateron Oil Kings really are as deep as people claim. You can answer both questions here in a few seconds.

Clicky, creamy, or almost silent

The menu covers 126 switches, so whatever you are curious about is probably in there. For a clicky keyboard simulator, pick a click-bar switch like Kailh BOX Jade or the classic Cherry MX Blue. For a creamy keyboard simulator, NovelKeys Cream and Gateron Oil King have thicker housings that give a deeper, rounder bottom-out. If you need quiet, there are 21 silent switches with dampening pads, which most simulators skip entirely. Mechanisms that rarely get simulated are here too: Topre's electrocapacitive domes, IBM buckling spring and vintage Alps.

A computer keyboard simulator that behaves like hardware

Each switch has separate key-down and key-up samples, because a real keystroke makes noise twice. Repeated presses rotate through several takes with slight pitch variation, so holding a key does not turn into machine-gun repetition. Pitch shifts row by row the way a sculpted keycap set does, and each key is placed in the stereo field according to where it sits on the board. You can also toggle tape mod, case foam, O-rings and four plate materials to hear how those build changes shift the sound.

Any layout, including Dvorak and Colemak

Switch the on-screen board between 60%, 65%, 75%, TKL, full-size and HHKB, and the legends between ten logical layouts. If you type on a Dvorak keyboard simulator layout, or you are learning Colemak, Colemak-DH, Workman, AZERTY or QWERTZ, the keyboard relabels itself, and our typing test lets you practice the layout without changing any operating system setting. The keyboard sizes guide renders every form factor to scale on one page if you are still deciding.

Build a custom keyboard, then hear it

The builder turns this into a custom keyboard simulator. Pick from 17 layouts including Alice and ortholinear, choose a keycap profile, apply a colorway or paint individual keys, import your own arrangement from keyboard-layout-editor, then share the result as a link or export it as an image. Pair it with the switch you were just listening to and you have the look and the sound settled before ordering anything.

Typing sounds and hardware testing

Plenty of people use a keyboard simulator for the typing sound alone, as background noise or ASMR while they work. The typing box and the hands-free demo exist for that. If your interest is diagnostic rather than acoustic, the keyboard tester checks every key on your physical board, detects chatter and measures rollover.

What the audio can and cannot tell you

Our audio is synthesized from each switch's published specifications and documented sound character, and it is labeled "simulated" wherever it plays. Real switch sound also depends on the plate, case, keycaps and the room you are sitting in. It compares switches against each other consistently, which is what most people need it for, but it is not proof of how one will sound in your particular build. The credits page explains how the sounds are made.

Frequently asked questions