Gamepad / Controller Tester

Connect a controller by USB or Bluetooth, then press any button to wake it up. Everything runs locally in your browser.

Stick drift test

Vibration test

Testing a specific controller? See the dedicated guides: PS5 DualSense · Xbox Series X|S · Switch Pro & Joy-Con

How to read the results

Buttons light up while pressed; triggers show a value between 0.00 and 1.00. Axes show each analog stick's X/Y position from −1.00 to 1.00. At rest, healthy sticks read close to 0.00.

Stick drift: if the drift test reports a resting deviation above ±0.10, your stick is drifting — in games this shows up as a character or camera moving on its own. Deviation between 0.05 and 0.10 is mild wear; most games hide it with a built-in dead zone. Below 0.05 is normal.

Triggers: pull each trigger slowly from rest to full. The value should sweep smoothly from 0.00 to 1.00 without jumping. A trigger that sits above 0.00 at rest, or that jumps straight to 1.00, has a worn potentiometer or a digital-only switch (normal on Switch controllers — see the Switch guide).

What stick drift actually is — and what you can do about it

Most controllers use potentiometer-based analog sticks: a small wiper sliding over a resistive track. As the track wears or collects debris, the stick reports movement that isn't happening — that's drift. It's a wear item, not a defect unique to your unit, which is why it eventually shows up on any heavily-used pad.

Rough escalation ladder before you buy a new controller: 1) re-run this test after a restart (rules out software), 2) rotate both sticks through their full range a dozen times — this can re-seat debris, 3) a short burst of electronics-grade contact cleaner under the stick skirt fixes many mild cases, 4) raise the in-game dead zone as a stopgap, 5) for out-of-warranty pads, stick modules are replaceable with basic soldering — and newer Hall-effect / TMR sticks (magnetic, no contact track) are drift-immune replacements available for many models.

Controller connects but nothing shows up?

Browsers deliberately hide idle gamepads until you press a button (a fingerprinting protection) — so press any face button first. If it still doesn't appear: try a different USB cable (charge-only cables carry no data), close Steam and any remapping software (they can capture the pad exclusively), and prefer Chrome or Edge — the Gamepad API is most complete there. On macOS, Bluetooth pads sometimes need to be re-paired after an OS update.