What Is My Screen Resolution? Check Your Display Online
Your screen's native resolution — the physical pixels — rather than the scaled figure most tools report. If you have display scaling or browser zoom on, those two numbers are different, and the difference is why people buy the wrong cable. It works as a screen resolution checker for any monitor, laptop, phone or tablet.
Screen resolution
Native resolution
—
- CSS pixels—
- Viewport—
- Device pixel ratio—
- Aspect ratio—
- Colour depth—
- Available area—
- Orientation—
Runs in your browser. Nothing is recorded or uploaded.
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The three numbers, and which one you want
- Native resolution. The physical pixels in the panel — the figure on the box. This is what you want when buying a monitor, a cable, or checking whether a game can run at full resolution.
- CSS pixels. The logical units web pages are laid out in. Equal to native only when scaling and zoom are both off. This is the number most resolution sites show you, usually without saying so.
- Viewport. The space your browser window actually gives the page, so it excludes tabs, the address bar and window borders. This is what responsive websites respond to — not your screen.
Why scaling confuses this
Display scaling exists because a 4K panel in a 15-inch laptop has pixels far too small to read at 100%. The operating system draws everything at 150% or 200% so text stays legible, and the browser reports the scaled figure to web pages so they lay out sensibly.
The side effect is that asking a web page for your resolution gives you the scaled number. On a 4K laptop at 200%, that is 1920×1080 — which is why people conclude their 4K screen is "only Full HD". It isn't. The panel is 3840×2160; the operating system is drawing at half that for legibility.
Device pixel ratio is the multiplier between the two, and it is the honest limit of what any browser can tell you: it moves with browser zoom as well as with system scaling, and nothing in JavaScript can separate them. Press Ctrl and 0 to reset zoom and see whether the figure shifts.
Changing your resolution or scaling
Windows 11 and Windows 10
- Settings → System → Display. Resolution and Scale are two separate dropdowns, and confusing them is the usual cause of a blurry screen.
- Always run a monitor at its Recommended resolution. Anything else is being stretched by the panel and will look soft.
- If text is too small, change Scale rather than resolution. That keeps the panel sharp and only enlarges what is drawn.
- Scaling that is not a multiple of 25% can cause blurry text in older applications. 100%, 125%, 150% and 200% behave best.
macOS
- System Settings → Displays. macOS presents "Larger Text" through "More Space" rather than raw resolutions.
- Hold Option and click Scaled to reveal the actual resolution list on displays that hide it.
- On a Retina display, "Default" is the sharpest option. The scaled modes render larger and downsample, which is very slightly softer.
- For an external monitor, pick the mode matching its native resolution — macOS does not always choose it.
Linux
- GNOME: Settings → Displays. Fractional scaling may need enabling first and can be inconsistent between X11 and Wayland — worth knowing before concluding something is broken.
- KDE Plasma: System Settings → Display and Monitor, which handles fractional scaling more predictably.
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From a terminal,
xrandrlists every mode the driver offers on X11, andwlr-randrdoes the same on some Wayland compositors. - If a resolution your monitor supports is missing entirely, that is usually the graphics driver or the EDID the monitor reports, not the desktop.
Phones, tablets and Chromebooks
- Android: Settings → Display for display size and font size. Some phones also expose a screen resolution setting that trades sharpness for battery.
- iPhone: Settings → Display & Brightness → Display Zoom switches between Default and Larger Text.
- ChromeOS: Settings → Device → Displays, where the resolution slider changes scaling rather than the panel itself.
- On any of these the panel resolution is fixed; what you are changing is how large things are drawn on it.
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Frequently asked questions
How do I check my screen resolution?
Open this page on the screen you want to check. Your native resolution is shown as soon as the page loads, along with your viewport size and aspect ratio.
How do I find my monitor resolution in pixels, like 1920×1080?
The native figure on this page is your monitor's physical pixel count, for example 1920×1080 for Full HD, 2560×1440 for 1440p and 3840×2160 for 4K. It can differ from what Windows or your browser reports when display scaling or zoom is switched on.
Why does this show a different resolution to what I expected?
Almost certainly display scaling. Most "what is my resolution" tools report CSS pixels, which is what web pages are laid out in — and on a machine with scaling turned on that is not your monitor's resolution. A 4K laptop running at 200% scaling reports 1920×1080 in CSS pixels while the panel is genuinely 3840×2160. This page shows both, with the native figure first, because that is the one you want when buying a cable or a monitor.
What is the difference between native, CSS and viewport?
Native is the physical pixels in the panel — the number on the box. CSS pixels are the logical units web pages use, which equal native pixels only when scaling and zoom are both off. Viewport is the area your browser window actually has for the page, so it is smaller again because it excludes the address bar, tabs and any window borders. Responsive websites respond to the viewport, not to your screen.
Can you tell whether it is browser zoom or Windows scaling?
No, and nor can any other browser tool — they produce the same signal. Device pixel ratio moves with both, so a value of 1.5 could be 150% Windows scaling at normal zoom, or no scaling at 150% browser zoom. To rule out zoom, press Ctrl and 0 (Command and 0 on a Mac) and see whether the number changes. If it stays put, the scaling is coming from your operating system or from a high-density screen doing it by design.
What is device pixel ratio?
How many physical pixels your display uses to draw one CSS pixel. A standard monitor at 100% scaling is 1. A Retina Mac is typically 2. Windows at 150% scaling gives 1.5. It is the multiplier between the two resolution figures above, and it is why the same web page looks sharper on some screens than others.
Why is the available area smaller than my screen?
Because it excludes space permanently taken by the operating system — the Windows taskbar, the macOS menu bar and dock. It is what a maximised window can actually occupy. Useful if you are wondering why a window never quite fills the screen.
My monitor is 1440p but this says 2560×1440. Is that right?
Yes — they are the same thing. Resolutions are commonly named by their vertical pixel count: 1080p is 1920×1080, 1440p is 2560×1440, and 4K is 3840×2160 despite being closer to 2160p. The naming is marketing convention rather than anything technical.
Does this work with multiple monitors?
It reports the screen your browser window is currently on. Drag the window to another monitor and the figures update. Browsers deliberately do not expose a list of all your displays, because that would be a useful fingerprinting signal — so no web page can show you every monitor at once.
Is any of this sent anywhere?
No. Every figure is read from your browser and displayed. Nothing is stored or uploaded. Your screen resolution is one of the signals used in browser fingerprinting, which is worth knowing generally — but this page does nothing with it.
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