How to Record Your Screen With Webcam and Sound, Free

To record your screen for free, open the Screen Recorder, decide whether you want your webcam in a corner, leave the mic on if you're going to talk, and press Start recording. Your browser asks what to share (the entire screen, one window or a single tab). Pick one, wait for the 3-2-1, and go. When you're done, press Stop, watch it back and download it as MP4 or WebM.

That's really it. The rest of this guide covers the bits that trip people up: getting sound into the recording, where the webcam bubble should go, and what to do with the file afterwards.

Screen, window or tab: which should you share?

When the browser asks what to share, you get three choices, and they behave differently.

Entire screen records everything you see, including notifications popping up and the other apps you switch to. Good for showing a workflow across several programs. Turn on Do Not Disturb first, because a message from your group chat in the corner of a tutorial is nobody's favourite moment.

A window records one app. If you drag another window on top of it, some systems keep recording the hidden window and others show what's on top, so test it once before a long take.

A tab records one browser tab, and it's the only choice that reliably captures sound on every desktop system. It's the best pick for recording a web app, a browser game, a slide deck in Google Slides or a video call that runs in the browser.

How to get sound into your screen recording

Sound is where most free screen recorders fall over, so it's worth knowing what browsers allow.

• Your voice: leave "Record my microphone" on. The level meter under the preview moves when it hears you. If it doesn't, check the mic is allowed in the address bar.
• Sound from a tab: share a tab and tick Share tab audio in the browser's picker. This works in Chrome and Edge on Windows, Mac, Linux and ChromeOS.
• Sound from the whole computer: on Windows and ChromeOS, sharing the entire screen offers Share system audio. macOS doesn't give browsers the system sound, so on a Mac share a tab instead.

When both are on, the recorder mixes your voice and the computer sound into one track, so there's nothing to line up later. If you asked for computer sound but didn't tick the box, the page tells you so you aren't surprised after a 20-minute take.

Adding your webcam in a corner

A small face in the corner makes tutorials and feedback videos feel a lot more human. Tick Show my webcam in the corner and pick:

• Position: the corner that doesn't cover anything important. Bottom right is the usual pick, but on a coding screen the bottom often has a terminal, so top right can be better.
• Shape: circle is the classic look, rounded suits a 4:3 camera, square is the most neutral.
• Size: small for content-heavy screens, large when you're the main event.

The bubble is drawn into every frame of the video, so it's part of the downloaded file and needs no editing. While you're recording, you can hide it or move it to another corner with one click, handy when it starts covering a button you need to show.

Pausing, stopping and checking the result

Pause stops the clock and the video together, and Resume carries on in the same file, so you can take a breath, find the next tab or let a slow page load without cutting later. Stop finishes the file. You can also click the browser's own Stop sharing bar; the recorder notices and wraps up.

The finished recording plays on the page straight away. Watch the first few seconds and the end, check the sound, and then download it.

MP4 or WebM?

Pick MP4 when your browser offers it (recent Chrome, Edge and Safari do). It opens in everything: Windows' Photos app, QuickTime, iMovie, PowerPoint, WhatsApp. WebM is what Firefox records. It plays in all modern browsers and in VLC, and YouTube accepts it as is. If an editor won't open a WebM file, the Video Editor can convert and compress it, and Trim Video cuts off a fumbled start without re-encoding.

Is a browser screen recorder private?

This one is. The recording is built in your computer's memory by the browser itself and saved straight to your downloads. Nothing goes to a server, there's no account and no watermark. The only limit is memory: an hour at 1080p is roughly 1–3 GB, so for very long sessions, record in parts.

Quick tips for a better recording

1. Close the tabs and apps you don't want to show, and silence notifications.
2. Make text bigger than you think you need (Ctrl or Cmd and +); people often watch on phones.
3. Do a 10-second test with sound before the real take.
4. Use a headset mic if you can. It sounds better than a laptop mic and doesn't pick up your keyboard as much.
5. Need the words too? Save the audio and run it through Transcribe Audio for a text version or subtitles.