About Exact Online Compass

What this site does

Most devices carry a three-axis magnetometer, and every modern mobile browser can read it. This site turns that sensor into a compass: a dial that rotates as you turn, a heading in degrees clockwise from north, and the nearest of the sixteen traditional compass points beside it.

The part that sets it apart is the correction. Browsers only ever report magnetic north, which is not the north your map is drawn against. Where you allow location access, the page computes your local magnetic declination from the NOAA and NGA World Magnetic Model and applies it, so you can read a true heading as well as a magnetic one.

Our mission

Finding which way you are facing should not require downloading an app, granting it a list of permissions it does not need, or paying for the privilege. Our aim is to make direction finding simple, immediate and open to anyone with a browser.

That shapes what the site is. It opens in seconds. It asks for the sensors it needs and nothing else. It explains what it cannot do rather than showing a confident number it cannot support. And it is free, with no account, no paid tier and no advertising.

How to use the online compass

Open the site on a phone or tablet and tap Start compass. On iOS you will be asked for permission to use the motion and orientation sensors; this is the tap Apple requires before any web page can read the magnetometer. Android grants it without a prompt.

Hold the device flat and level, away from metal, magnets and electronics, and let the reading settle. The number under the dial is your heading. Allow location as well and you can switch between true and magnetic north at any time.

Key features

• A live heading read directly from your device’s magnetometer, not estimated from your IP address or timezone.
• True north correction using the official NOAA/NGA World Magnetic Model, verified against their own published test values.
• Your local magnetic declination, shown alongside the heading.
• The sensor’s own margin of error, plus a prompt to recalibrate when the reading starts to drift.
• Readings in degrees and as all sixteen named compass points.
• A screen that stays awake while you navigate, and a dark mode for night use.
• Works offline after the first load — the magnetic model is part of the page.

Works on desktop, tablet and mobile

The layout adapts to any screen, from a phone held in one hand to a desktop monitor. The live compass itself needs a magnetometer, which in practice means a phone or a tablet: almost no desktop computers and very few laptops contain one. On a device without the sensor the page says so plainly instead of showing a dial stuck at zero, and the reference material remains fully readable.

Available in eight languages

The site is published in English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Portuguese, Korean and Italian. Every page, every control and every compass point is translated, including the letters on the dial itself — a German dial reads N, O, S and W, and a Japanese one reads 北, 東, 南 and 西. Use the language selector in the header to switch at any time; it keeps you on the page you are reading.

Our commitment

We will keep this tool free, keep it working in the browser without an install, and keep it honest about its own limits. A compass that hides its margin of error is not doing you a favour.

We also keep your data where it belongs. Your location and the sensor readings stay inside the page and are never transmitted to us — that does not change. We do use Google Analytics to see which pages people reach, and the site carries no advertising. The Privacy Policy sets out exactly what the analytics collects and how to opt out of it.