PS5 Controller Test

Connect a DualSense, press any button and it lights up on a PlayStation-shaped diagram with the names printed on the pad: ✕ ○ □ △, L1 R1, L2 R2, Create, Options, the d-pad, L3 R3, the PS button and the touchpad click. The triggers show their analog travel as bars from 0.00 to 1.00 and each stick panel reports its rest offset, so stick drift on a PS5 controller is visible in seconds. The layout is locked to PlayStation here; Generic shows plain index numbers if you prefer.

Everything runs on the Gamepad API in your browser, so nothing is installed and no controller data leaves the device. Chrome and Edge give the fullest picture of a DualSense, including the touchpad click and rumble; Firefox and Safari read buttons, triggers and sticks but not vibration. The home page gamepad tester is the same tool with automatic layout detection for any pad.

How to test a PS5 controller in the browser

Plug the DualSense in with a USB-C cable, or hold Create and the PS button until the light bar pulses and pair it from the operating system's Bluetooth settings. Press any button once; the browser hides every gamepad until the first press. The status line then shows the controller's name, 18 buttons, 4 axes and the current report rate in Hz. In Chrome the name reads something like DualSense Wireless Controller followed by Vendor 054c and Product 0ce6, which is Sony's vendor ID and the DualSense product ID.

Work through every control: each face button, both bumpers, both triggers pulled all the way, the four d-pad directions, Create and Options, both stick clicks, the PS button and a firm press on the touchpad. The Not pressed yet list shrinks as each one registers, and the counter reaches 18 of 18 when the DualSense has passed. If the PS button opens something on your computer instead of registering, that is the operating system or Steam intercepting it, not a failed button.

DualSense button names and what the browser calls them

The browser reports buttons by index, and this page maps the standard order to DualSense names. The order is the same one the DualShock 4 uses, so anything written for a PS4 pad lines up.

Index	DualSense	Reported as
0	Cross	on or off
1	Circle	on or off
2	Square	on or off
3	Triangle	on or off
4, 5	L1, R1	on or off
6, 7	L2, R2	analog, 0.00 to 1.00
8	Create	on or off
9	Options	on or off
10, 11	L3, R3	stick click
12 to 15	d-pad Up, Down, Left, Right	one index each
16	PS	on or off
17	Touchpad click	Chrome and Edge

Three buttons deserve a closer look. Create replaced the PS4's Share button and reports at the same index 8, so the two are interchangeable for games and remapping tools. The touchpad click is the whole touchpad pressed down as one button; it appears as index 17 in Chrome and Edge and is the only touchpad input a browser can see. The Mic button below the touchpad is handled by the controller's own firmware and whether it reaches the browser at all depends on the operating system and browser; if it does, it shows as an extra index in the raw grid rather than on the diagram.

What a browser cannot read on a DualSense

The DualSense has more inside it than any other mainstream controller, and most of that is invisible to a web page. The Gamepad API exposes buttons, axes and basic rumble, nothing else. These features are real and may be perfectly healthy; this page simply cannot see them.

• Adaptive triggers. The resistance motors inside L2 and R2 are driven by the game through Sony's own driver. The browser reads how far each trigger is pulled, which tests the sensor, but cannot change or detect the resistance.
• Touchpad finger position. Only the click reaches the browser. Swipes, taps without a press and the position of one or two fingers are not part of the Gamepad API on any browser.
• Gyroscope and accelerometer. Motion data never leaves the HID report in a form the Gamepad API passes on. A pad that aims fine with motion in games will show nothing here, and one with a broken gyro will look identical.
• Speaker, mic and headset jack. The built-in speaker, the microphone array and the 3.5 mm jack are audio devices to the operating system, not gamepad inputs. Test them in a game or the system sound settings.
• Light bar and player LEDs. A page cannot change their colour or read their state. The light bar still tells you something during pairing: a slow pulse means it is searching, a steady colour means it is connected.
• Battery level. The charge is reported to the operating system over Bluetooth and shown in its Bluetooth settings, but the Gamepad API has no battery field, so the tester cannot display it.

Haptic feedback is a partial exception. The DualSense's voice-coil haptics accept an ordinary rumble command, so the Test vibration button below the diagram and the controller vibration test make the pad shake in Chrome and Edge. What you feel is the fallback rumble pattern, not the fine-grained haptics a PS5 game produces.

USB versus Bluetooth on the DualSense

The connection changes what the test can show. Over USB-C the DualSense reports at its full rate, the browser receives every input, and rumble fires reliably in Chrome and Edge. Over Bluetooth the controller sends reports less often, the status line usually shows a lower Hz, and rumble may be ignored depending on the operating system. The polling rate test measures the difference on your own setup.

Use this to separate a controller fault from a connection fault. If a button fails over Bluetooth but registers over the cable, the pairing, the adapter or radio interference is the cause; re-pair the pad or move the receiver. If it fails both ways, the switch under the button is the problem. A cable that charges the pad but never makes it appear in the tester is a power-only cable; swap it for one that carries data.

Checking a PS5 controller for stick drift

Let go of both sticks and read the rest offset in each stick panel. Under 5% is normal and lives inside the dead zone of nearly every game. Between 5% and 10% you may notice slow camera creep in games with small dead zones. Above 10% the panel turns red and the controller is telling the game you are pushing the stick while your hands are off; that is stick drift, and the stick drift test grades it over ten seconds with peak and jitter numbers.

The DualSense uses potentiometer sticks that wear where they rest, so drift is the most common fault on PS5 controllers after a year or two of use. Unlike an Xbox pad, the DualSense can be recalibrated: the sister tool at dualshockcalibrationgui.com connects to the controller in the browser and rewrites the stick centre point, which removes a moderate offset without opening the shell. If drift returns within weeks, the track is worn through and the module needs replacing; the guide on how to fix stick drift covers cleaning, dead zones, calibration and replacement in order.

When to run a PS5 controller test

Run it before buying a used DualSense, since drift and a trigger that rests above 0.00 are the two faults listings leave out and both show here in under a minute. Run it before a repair or warranty request, because a screenshot of a button that never lights or a stick panel in red is what support asks for. And run it when a PC game ignores the pad: a clean result here means the controller is fine and Steam Input, DS4Windows or the game's own settings are in the way.

If your controller is a DualShock 4, the PS4 controller test uses the same tool with the Share label and notes specific to that pad, and the Xbox controller test covers XInput pads.