Free LUFS meter
Drop a video or audio file to measure its loudness the way YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts do: integrated LUFS, true peak and loudness range, and how far each one will turn it up or down.
- Free, no sign-up
- Your file stays on your device
- Targets checked October 20, 2026
Drop a video or audio file
MP4, MOV, WAV, MP3, M4A and most other files your browser can play. Your file stays on your device.
Reading your file…
Measured on your device. Nothing is uploaded.Example: the opening of a brand video from our voiceover video series case study, as it plays on this site.
Integrated loudness
- True peak
- Loudness range
- Max short-term
- Max momentary
Where it plays
Loudness per ITU-R BS.1770, loudness range per EBU Tech 3342, true peak with 4× oversampling. Targets from each platform's own page, read October 20, 2026.
Loudness targets for YouTube, Spotify and podcasts, with sources
Mix to about −14 LUFS integrated with true peaks at or below −1 dBTP for YouTube and Spotify, −16 LUFS for Apple Podcasts and −23 LUFS for European broadcast. Spotify, Apple Podcasts and EBU R 128 all measure with ITU-R BS.1770, the method this meter uses. YouTube doesn't publish its number, so we read it from YouTube's own data.
| Platform | Loudness | Peaks | What happens to your audio | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | −14 LUFS, read from YouTube’s player data (not published) | None published | Louder videos are turned down to the reference. Quieter ones aren’t turned up | Our measurement, Ian Shepherd, Production Advice: YouTube “Stats for nerds” |
| Spotify | −14 LUFS by default (Loud −11, Quiet −19) | Below −1 dBTP; below −2 dBTP if the master is louder than −14 LUFS | Turned down to the level; quieter tracks turned up only as far as their peaks leave 1 dB of headroom (a limiter only on the Loud setting) | Spotify for Artists: Loudness normalization |
| Apple Podcasts | −16 LKFS, ±1 dB | True peak at or below −1 dBFS | Recommended before you encode and upload | Apple Podcasts for Creators: Audio requirements |
| EBU R 128 (European broadcast) | −23.0 LUFS (±1.0 LU for live) | At or below −1 dBTP | Programmes are normalised to the target level | EBU R 128 (2023): Loudness normalisation and permitted maximum level of audio signals |
| TikTok and Instagram | None published | None published | We found no loudness target in either one’s help pages | Checked October 20, 2026 |
What YouTube's own player data shows
Every YouTube watch page loads a block of player data for the video. For the audio it holds two numbers: the video's loudness, and the volume adjustment the player applies. On October 20, 2026 we read both for 26 public videos: music videos, podcasts, talks, cooking, sports, news, gaming, piano covers and vlogs. On every one, the adjustment was the loudness minus −14 LUFS, to within 0.02 dB. For five of them we downloaded the audio YouTube serves and measured it with ffmpeg's EBU R 128 meter, and YouTube's loudness value matched our reading to within 0.1 LU.
| Video | We measured | YouTube’s loudness value | YouTube’s adjustment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Never Gonna Give You UpRick Astley | −13.1 LUFS | −13.0 | Turned down 1.0 dB |
| Chill Lofi Hip Hop: 3-Minute BlissChillHop Oasis | −19.6 LUFS | −19.6 | 5.6 dB under; not turned up |
| A Capybara Family’s Day at PlayNat Geo Animals | −22.8 LUFS | −22.8 | 8.8 dB under; not turned up |
| The NEW Tesla Roadster: My Honest ReactionMarques Brownlee | −23.0 LUFS | −23.0 | 9.0 dB under; not turned up |
| How to know your life purpose in 5 minutesTEDx Talks | −23.8 LUFS | −23.8 | 9.8 dB under; not turned up |
A positive adjustment is how far YouTube turns a video down. The negative ones are not applied as a boost: as mastering engineer Ian Shepherd explains, YouTube doesn't turn quieter videos up. So a video mixed at −20 LUFS plays 6 dB quieter than one at −14, a jump you hear when the next video starts. You can see the same number on any video under “Stats for nerds”, where YouTube calls it content loudness.
How the meter measures
Your browser decodes the file at 48 kHz. The meter then applies the K-weighting filter from ITU-R BS.1770, measures 400-millisecond blocks every 100 milliseconds and gates out blocks below −70 LUFS and blocks more than 10 LU below the average: what is left is the integrated loudness. Loudness range follows EBU Tech 3342 (3-second blocks, the 10th to 95th percentile after a 20 LU gate), and true peak uses the 4× oversampling filter printed in BS.1770. Before publishing it we checked it against ffmpeg's ebur128 meter on stereo, mono, 5.1, 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz test files and real music and speech: integrated loudness and loudness range agreed within 0.1 LU.
Sources: Spotify for Artists: Loudness normalization, Apple Podcasts for Creators: Audio requirements, EBU R 128 (2023): Loudness normalisation and permitted maximum level of audio signals and Ian Shepherd, Production Advice: YouTube “Stats for nerds”, read on October 20, 2026. YouTube's reference measured by Mark Studios on October 20, 2026.
Questions, answered.
Anything else? Message Mark and you'll get a written reply within one business day.
What LUFS should a YouTube video be?
About −14 LUFS integrated, with true peaks at or below −1 dBTP. YouTube doesn’t publish a target, but its player data does: on all 26 public videos we checked on October 20, 2026, the volume adjustment YouTube stores was the video’s loudness minus −14 LUFS. A louder video is turned down to that level, and a quieter one isn’t turned up, so mixing below −14 just plays quieter.
What is LUFS?
LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) measures how loud audio sounds, not how high its peaks reach. The meter filters the audio to match how hearing weights frequencies, averages it in 400-millisecond blocks and ignores silence and very quiet passages, following ITU-R BS.1770. One LU is one decibel, so a file at −16 LUFS needs 2 dB of gain to reach −14.
Is LUFS the same as LKFS?
Yes. EBU R 128 says LUFS is equivalent to LKFS, the name ITU-R BS.1770 uses. Apple Podcasts and US broadcast specs say LKFS, Spotify and European broadcast say LUFS, and the numbers mean the same thing.
What is true peak, and why −1 dBTP?
True peak is the highest level the waveform reaches between samples once it is turned back into sound, so it can be higher than the peak your editor’s meter shows. Encoding to AAC, MP3 or Opus can raise peaks further. Spotify, Apple Podcasts and EBU R 128 all ask for −1 dBTP or lower, and Spotify asks for −2 dBTP on masters louder than −14 LUFS.
How loud should a podcast be?
For Apple Podcasts, −16 LKFS with a ±1 dB tolerance and a true peak no higher than −1 dBFS, which is what Apple recommends for every episode. If the same episode goes to YouTube as a video podcast, YouTube plays it about 2 dB quieter than a video mixed to −14.
What LUFS does Spotify use?
Spotify plays music at −14 LUFS by default, measured with ITU-R BS.1770, with −11 and −19 LUFS for its Loud and Quiet settings. Unlike YouTube, it turns quieter tracks up as well as louder ones down, but only as far as the track’s true peak leaves 1 dB of headroom: Spotify’s own example is a track at −20 LUFS peaking at −5 dBTP, which it lifts only to −16 LUFS. Only the Loud setting uses a limiter.
Do TikTok and Instagram normalize loudness?
Neither publishes a loudness target in its help pages that we could find on October 20, 2026. The −10 to −14 LUFS figures quoted online come from third-party guides, so test-upload a clip and judge it on a phone against other videos in the feed.
How do I check LUFS in Premiere Pro?
Adobe’s Loudness Meter effect shows momentary, short-term and integrated loudness: in the Audio Track Mixer, add it to an effect slot on the Mix track from Special > Loudness Meter and play the sequence through. Or export the audio or the finished video and drop the file here.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. Your browser reads and decodes the file on your device and measures it there. Nothing is sent to us, so you can check a video before it’s public.
Rather have it mixed for you?
Edits mixed and mastered for YouTube, podcasts and social, and you work directly with Mark.
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