Gamepad Test – Test Your Controller and Joystick Online
Check every button, trigger and stick on your controller, and measure stick drift with a real number rather than a guess. Works with Xbox, PlayStation, Switch Pro and most third-party pads over USB or Bluetooth. Use it as a controller tester or joystick test for PS4, PS5, Xbox and Switch controllers.
Gamepad test
Runs in your browser. Nothing is recorded or uploaded.
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How to test your controller online
- Connect your controller by USB cable or Bluetooth, then press any button on it. Nothing appears until you do — browsers hide controllers until a button is pressed.
- Work through every button. Each one lights as you hold it and stays marked afterwards, so you can see at a glance which never responded.
- Move both sticks in full circles. The dots should reach the edge in every direction and return to the centre when released.
- Squeeze each trigger slowly. The bar should rise smoothly from 0% to 100% without jumping.
- Put the controller down, take your hands off it, and press Test for stick drift. Do not touch it for four seconds.
What the results mean
- Every button lights and both sticks reach the edges. The controller, its cable and its driver are all working. Any problem you are having is in the game or its input settings, not the hardware.
- Drift below 0.08. Normal. Every game applies a dead zone larger than this, so it cannot move anything on its own.
- Drift between 0.08 and 0.15. Early wear. You may notice slow movement in menus and in games with light dead zones, and nothing at all in others. Clean the stick before assuming it is finished.
- Drift above 0.15. Past the dead zone most games use. This is the fault that walks your character into walls. Check the warranty first.
- One stick drifts, the other does not. Normal for wear — the left stick is used far more in most games and almost always fails first. It also confirms the fault is the stick module rather than the board.
- A trigger stops short of 100%. The potentiometer is wearing. In racing games this shows up as never quite reaching full throttle.
- A button never lights. Either the switch has failed or the contact pad underneath is dirty. On most controllers this is a cheap, if fiddly, repair.
Not working? Fix it
Controller not detected at all
- Press a button first. This is the answer most of the time. Browsers will not reveal a controller until you press something on it.
- Try a different USB cable. Many cables supplied with controllers and phones are charge-only and carry no data at all. If the controller charges but nothing is detected, this is the most likely cause by a wide margin.
- Try another USB port, directly on the machine rather than through a hub or a monitor.
- Close other programs that capture controllers — Steam, the Xbox accessories app, DS4Windows and similar can take exclusive control.
- Try a different browser. Chrome and Edge have the most complete gamepad support; Safari lags behind on some controllers.
Windows 11 and Windows 10
-
Press Windows + R, type
joy.cpland press Enter. If the controller is not listed there either, Windows itself cannot see it and the problem is below the browser. - Open Device Manager and look under Human Interface Devices. A yellow warning triangle means a driver problem — right-click, uninstall, then unplug and replug.
- For an Xbox controller, install the Xbox Accessories app and check for a firmware update. Drift and dead-zone behaviour genuinely change with firmware.
- For Bluetooth, remove the controller in Settings → Bluetooth & devices and pair it again. Stale pairings cause intermittent disconnection far more often than failing hardware does.
macOS
- Check System Settings → Bluetooth and confirm the controller shows as connected rather than merely paired.
- macOS supports Xbox Wireless and DualShock/DualSense controllers natively on recent versions. Older third-party pads may need the manufacturer's driver.
- Use Chrome rather than Safari if the controller is detected by the system but not by the page — Safari's gamepad support is less complete.
- Hold the pairing button properly: on a DualSense, Create and PS together until the light bar flashes rapidly.
Stick drift, in detail
- Check the warranty before you open anything. Drift is a known defect, and manufacturers have replaced affected controllers well beyond their normal terms after consumer-law pressure in several countries, Australia included. Opening the case ends that option.
- Compressed air. Pull the stick to one side and blow into the gap at its base, then rotate and repeat. Dust is a surprisingly common cause and this costs nothing.
- Contact cleaner. A small amount of electrical contact cleaner into the same gap, then rotate the stick through its full range thirty or forty times to work it in. Let it dry fully before reconnecting. This fixes many cases for months.
- Raise the in-game dead zone. Most games expose this setting. It masks mild drift at the cost of a little precision, and it is a perfectly reasonable way to keep using a controller.
- Replace the stick module. The permanent fix. Replacement modules are inexpensive but fitting one means desoldering. Hall-effect replacement sticks use magnets instead of contacts and do not wear in this way at all — worth the extra if you are already opening the controller.
Detected here but not in your game
- Close Steam completely and try again. Steam Input takes exclusive control of controllers and can hide them from other launchers.
- If you need Steam open, right-click the game → Properties → Controller → Disable Steam Input for that title.
- Disconnect every other controller and input device. Many games only read player one, and a second pad or a wheel can occupy that slot.
- For older games expecting XInput, a DualShock may need DS4Windows or Steam's own translation to appear at all.
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Frequently asked questions
How do I test my controller online?
Connect the controller by USB or Bluetooth, then press any button so the browser notices it. The page shows each button, trigger and stick as you use it.
Is this a controller tester for PS5, Xbox and Switch pads?
Yes. It is a controller tester that works with Xbox, PlayStation and Switch Pro controllers and most third-party pads. Leave the sticks untouched and the stick readout shows any drift as a number.
My controller is connected but the page says no controller detected.
Press a button on it. Chrome, Edge and Safari deliberately hide gamepads from a web page until the user presses a button on one, so that a site cannot silently detect what hardware you own. It is a privacy measure rather than a fault, and it catches almost everyone — a controller can be plugged in, charged, paired and showing a lit ring, and still be invisible here until you press A.
What is stick drift and how does this test measure it?
Stick drift is when an analog stick reports movement while you are not touching it, so your character walks or your camera spins on its own. It happens as the potentiometer inside the stick wears and its resting reading stops being zero. This test samples both sticks for four seconds while you keep your hands off and reports the furthest they strayed from centre, as a fraction of full deflection. Below 0.08 is harmless because every game ignores that much. Above 0.15 is past most games' dead zone and will affect play.
Can stick drift be fixed?
Often, at least for a while. Compressed air around the base of the stick, then a small amount of electrical contact cleaner worked in by rotating the stick through its full range, clears the dust and oxidation causing a good share of cases. It is worth trying first because it costs almost nothing. If the stick is physically worn the fix is replacing the module, which means opening the controller and soldering. Before any of that, check the warranty — drift is a recognised defect and several manufacturers have replaced affected controllers well outside their normal terms following consumer-law action.
The page detects my controller but my game does not.
That tells you something useful: the controller, cable and driver are all fine, so the problem is in the game or its input layer. The usual causes are a game expecting XInput while your controller presents as DirectInput, Steam Input taking exclusive control, or a second connected device being treated as player one. Try closing Steam entirely, or in Steam set Controller Settings to disable Steam Input for that specific title.
Why do my triggers show a percentage instead of just on or off?
Because on every modern controller they are analog — they report how far they are pressed, which is what lets a racing game read gentle throttle. The bar is genuinely useful for diagnosis: a trigger that no longer reaches 100%, or that jumps rather than rising smoothly, is wearing out even though it still registers as pressed.
Does this work with PlayStation, Xbox and Switch controllers?
Yes. All of them speak standard HID over USB or Bluetooth, which is what browsers read. Button labels on screen follow the Xbox layout because that is the standard mapping browsers report — so on a DualSense, A is Cross, B is Circle, X is Square and Y is Triangle.
The rumble button does nothing.
Vibration support is patchy and depends on the combination of browser, controller and connection rather than on any one of them. Chrome and Edge support it, Firefox and Safari largely do not, and the same controller often vibrates over Bluetooth but not over USB. A silent controller here does not mean the motors have failed — test it in a game before concluding anything.
Are my controller inputs recorded?
No. Button presses and stick positions are read, drawn on screen and discarded. Nothing is stored and nothing is uploaded. You can verify it: open your browser's developer tools, watch the Network tab, and move the sticks — nothing is sent.
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