Get Online Compass — turn any phone into a live compass
An online compass is a browser-based compass that reads your phone's built-in magnetometer — the same sensor a physical needle compass replaces — and draws a live compass rose on screen. Instead of installing anything, you open a page and the dial turns as you turn. Get Online Compass is a free online compass that shows your heading in degrees (0–360°) alongside the cardinal point you are facing. The reading refreshes many times a second, so the online compass direction stays live as you move. Because every calculation runs locally in your browser, your heading and location never leave your device. It works on Android and iPhone, and on any laptop or tablet that exposes an orientation sensor.
How to use the online compass for direction
Open the page on your phone and allow motion access when your browser asks. Hold the device flat, screen up, roughly at waist height. The white pointer at the top of the dial is your heading — the direction you are facing right now. If the numbers drift, wave your phone in a slow figure-8 to recalibrate the magnetometer. Use Freeze to hold a reading while you look away from the screen, and type a bearing or a name like “Southwest” into Am I Facing? to get live turn-left / turn-right guidance until you are on target.
Online compass north, true north and declination
There are two norths, and the difference matters. Magnetic north is where the needle points; true north is the geographic pole your map is drawn around. The angle between them is magnetic declination, and it changes depending on where you stand — a few degrees across most of Europe, more than fifteen in parts of North America. Enable location and this online compass reads your coordinates, computes declination from the World Magnetic Model, and shows magnetic north and true north side by side. Add the declination to your magnetic reading to navigate against a paper map or a surveyed bearing.
What makes this a genuinely free online compass tool
No account, no trial, no download, and no upload of your data. Alongside the live dial you get your coordinates in degrees-minutes-seconds, altitude, your city, sunrise and sunset times, and a shareable link that marks a specific heading for someone else to follow. The page is installable as a progressive web app and keeps working offline once loaded, so a compass online is still available when you are out of signal. Optional haptic ticks pulse as you cross each cardinal point, which lets you follow a bearing without staring at the screen.
Does an online compass work on every device?
Accuracy depends on hardware. Almost every modern smartphone carries a three-axis magnetometer, so a calibrated reading on Android or iPhone lands within a couple of degrees — the same ballpark as a handheld baseplate compass. Tablets usually have one too. Most desktops and the majority of laptops have no magnetometer at all, though convertibles and Windows tablets are exceptions. If the page finds no compass hardware it shows a QR code so you can move to your phone instead of guessing.
Online compass not working? Common fixes
The compass points the wrong way
For the best reading, hold your phone flat and parallel to the ground. Nine times out of ten a wrong heading is just calibration: if the needle drifts or spins, wave the phone slowly in a figure-8 a few times, rolling your wrist as you go — that exposes the magnetometer to Earth's field from several angles and re-maps it, usually fixing the drift within seconds. If the dial is still off, look at what is around the phone. A magnetic car mount, a case with a magnet ring, a metal desk, a laptop, a speaker, a car dashboard or the steel in a reinforced wall all create local magnetic fields that interfere with the sensor. Step a couple of metres clear and read again. Remember the dial shows magnetic north by default — enable location and it will show true north beside it, and in parts of North America the two differ by more than fifteen degrees.
Nothing happens on a laptop or desktop
There is usually no sensor to read. Desktops almost never include a magnetometer and most laptops do not either, so no browser setting will make a compass appear — the hardware simply is not there. Convertibles, Surface-style tablets and some 2-in-1s do have one, and on those the dial starts moving as soon as you tilt the machine. On everything else, scan the QR code the page shows and carry on from your phone.
Why the browser asks for permission
Motion and orientation data counts as a privacy-sensitive sensor, because a page sampling it continuously can help fingerprint a device. Browsers therefore make it opt-in rather than automatic. Granting access here permits exactly one thing: reading your compass heading. It does not expose your location, camera, microphone or files, and no reading ever leaves your device. If you dismissed the prompt by accident it will not reappear on its own — the two sections below reopen it.
Turning motion access back on — iPhone
Safari asks once per site. Open Settings, find Safari (on newer versions of iOS this lives under Settings › Apps › Safari), scroll to Motion & Orientation Access and switch it on. Go back to the compass, reload the page, and tap the screen once — Safari will not hand over the sensor until it sees a deliberate touch, which is why the dial can sit still until you interact with the page.
Turning motion sensors back on — Android
Chrome tracks this per site. Tap the icon just left of the address bar, open Permissions or Site settings, and set Motion sensors to allow. If you previously blocked it, use Reset permissions and reload so the prompt appears again. Aggressive battery-saver modes on some handsets also throttle sensor delivery to the browser, so if the reading is very slow to update, try turning battery saver off for Chrome.
When a live online compass is useful
Orienting a hiking map, aiming a satellite dish or a rooftop antenna, checking which way a flat's windows face before you rent, aligning solar panels, setting up a telescope, framing a sunrise photo, or simply working out which way to walk out of a metro station. Surveyors, estate agents, photographers, gardeners planning sun exposure and travellers without a data plan all reach for a browser compass. Pair it with the spirit level to check a surface is flat, or the sun position and moon position tools to plan around daylight.