How to Find and Change BPM in Ableton

1. Look at the top-left corner of the Ableton Live interface — the tempo field shows the current BPM.
2. Click and drag the BPM number up or down, or double-click to type a value.
3. Press Enter to confirm. The new tempo applies immediately.
4. For finer control, hold Shift while dragging — increments change by 0.01 BPM instead of 1 BPM.

Click the "Tap" button to the left of the BPM field, or assign a MIDI note or computer keyboard key to tap tempo via MIDI/Key Map mode (Cmd+M / Ctrl+M). Tap four times on quarter notes to set the tempo.

If you don't want to set up tap tempo inside Ableton, use our browser-based tap tempo tool — tap the BPM, then enter the value into your DAW.

Feature: Warp / Auto-Warp

Drop an audio clip into Live. Right-click and choose Edit > Warp Selection or open the clip in Sample View. Live auto-detects the tempo using its Warp engine. The detected BPM appears in the Seg. BPM field. Adjust if half-time / double-time is misdetected.

1. In Arrangement View, click the master track at the bottom of the track list.
2. Click the dropdown above the master clip and select Mixer > Song Tempo.
3. A red automation line appears. Click and drag breakpoints to create tempo changes over time.
4. Use right-click on a breakpoint and "Edit Value" to type an exact BPM.

Action	Mac	Windows
Tap tempo (after MIDI/Key map)	Cmd+M then assign	Ctrl+M then assign
Open Sample editor	Click clip	Click clip
Set Warp markers	Cmd+click	Ctrl+click

• Live's default BPM is 120. You can change the default in Preferences > Record Warp Launch > Default Warp Mode.
• Use the "Beats" warp mode for percussive material, "Tones" for melodic material, "Complex" for full mixes.
• If Auto-Warp halves or doubles the BPM, click the *2 or :2 buttons in the Sample editor to correct.
• Live can follow live audio tempo using Tempo Follower (Live 11+). Enable in Preferences > Link/Tempo/MIDI.