Hearing Frequency Test
A hearing frequency test that runs in your browser: find the highest tone you can hear in each ear, and the lowest tone you hear through your headphones, with a slow sweep you stop when the tone fades out. Wear headphones and start quiet. It checks your hearing range through your own equipment; it is no medical hearing test, and it cannot tell a limit in your ears from a limit in your headphones.
Before you start: put on headphones, wired if you have them, turn your volume low and play the 1 kHz reference tone. Raise the volume until it is quiet but clear, then leave it there. Never turn up to chase a tone that has faded.
How loud this page plays, below digital full scale. Set your volume with it at −30 and keep both where they are.
Set a safe volume first
A 1 kHz tone in both ears for 10 seconds, the frequency loudness and hearing measurements take as their reference.
- You should hear
- A steady, clear tone in the middle of your head. Set your volume so it is easy to hear but quiet, well below how loud you play music, and do not change it for the rest of the test.
High-frequency hearing test: how high can you hear?
A tone gliding up from 8 kHz to 20 kHz over 45 seconds, in one ear at a time. Press Stop the moment you can no longer hear it: your results below keep that frequency for that ear.
- You should hear
- A thin, piercing tone that climbs and then fades out. Children and young adults often hear close to 20 kHz; most adults stop somewhere around 15 to 17 kHz, and the limit falls with age, a change called presbycusis. Tap a single tone to check one frequency in both ears.
- If it sounds wrong
- Never turn the volume up to hear a tone that has faded: high tones can still be loud enough to harm your hearing when you no longer hear them clearly.
- Both ears stop at the same, fairly low frequency: suspect the equipment. Bluetooth codecs and many earbuds trim the highest tones, so try wired headphones.
- One ear stops much lower: swap the headphones round and run it again to tell your ears from the gear. A difference that stays, or comes with ringing or muffled hearing, is worth a visit to a hearing professional.
Low-frequency hearing test: how low can you hear?
A tone gliding down from 200 Hz to 20 Hz over 30 seconds, in both ears. Press Stop when it fades out.
- You should hear
- A low hum that sinks and fades. Hearing reaches down to about 20 Hz, but it needs far more level there than in the midrange, and most headphones and speakers fade out first, so this result is usually the limit of your equipment. Closed headphones that seal well reach the lowest; earbuds and laptop speakers stop much higher. The bass test checks the low end of speakers and subwoofers.
What a hearing range test can and cannot tell you
Your hearing range is the span of pitches you can hear, roughly 20 Hz to 20 kHz for young ears. The tests on this page look for its two edges through your own headphones: a tone that rises until it fades out, and one that falls until it does.
The top edge is the one that moves. High-frequency hearing falls with age, a change called presbycusis, and with noise exposure, so the highest tone you hear is a fair check of how much of the top octave you still have. The bottom edge is usually set by the headphones, because hearing needs far more level at 20 Hz than in the midrange.
Any edge depends on the level. A louder tone stays audible a little higher, which is why the page asks you to set the volume once, with the 1 kHz reference, and to leave it there, and why a result means most when you compare it with your own result on the same headphones at the same volume.
The ideas behind the controls
- Hearing range
- The span of frequencies a person hears, usually quoted as 20 Hz to 20 kHz for young, healthy ears. It narrows from the top with age.
- Presbycusis
- The gradual loss of high-frequency hearing with age. It starts at the top of the range, which is why the high-frequency test is the one to repeat over the years.
- Hearing threshold
- The quietest level at which a tone can be heard at a given frequency. A clinical audiogram maps it with calibrated equipment; a browser test cannot.
- Equal loudness
- Hearing is most sensitive in the few-kilohertz region and far less sensitive at the extremes, so very low and very high tones need much more level to sound as loud as 1 kHz.
Hearing frequency test FAQ
What is a hearing frequency test?
A test of the range of pitches you can hear, from the deepest to the highest, played as pure tones. This page sweeps a tone up from 8 kHz to 20 kHz in each ear and down from 200 Hz to 20 Hz, and keeps the frequency where you stopped hearing it. It finds the edges of your range through your own headphones. A clinical hearing test, an audiogram, measures something else: the quietest tone you can hear at each frequency, with calibrated equipment.
What is the normal human hearing range?
Roughly 20 Hz to 20 kHz, the range usually quoted for young, healthy ears. The top end is the part that changes: it falls with age, a change called presbycusis, and with noise exposure, and most adults stop hearing somewhere around 15 to 17 kHz. At the bottom, the limit you find here is usually your headphones or speakers, because hearing needs far more level at 20 Hz than at 1 kHz.
Can this test tell my hearing age?
No. The highest tone people hear falls with age on average, but people of the same age differ a lot, and the result also depends on your headphones and the volume, which this page cannot calibrate. Read your result as your range on this equipment today, and compare it with your own result later on the same headphones at the same volume.
Why can't I hear the highest tones?
Most often age or noise exposure, which take the top of the range first. The equipment can stop short too: Bluetooth codecs and many earbuds trim the highest tones, and some laptop and phone speakers barely play them. Run the test again on wired headphones at the same volume; if the result rises, the first result was the equipment.
Is a hearing frequency test safe?
At a sensible volume, yes. Set it with the 1 kHz reference tone so it is quiet but clear, then leave it alone for the whole test. Never turn up to chase a high tone that has faded: the extra level reaches your ears in full even when you barely hear the tone, and loud high tones can harm hearing. Keep each sweep short and take a break if a tone feels uncomfortable.
Is this a medical hearing test?
No. A hearing professional tests in a quiet booth with calibrated equipment and measures how quiet a tone you can hear at each frequency, which a browser and your own headphones cannot do. See one if you notice a sudden change in your hearing, ringing in your ears, muffled sound, one ear worse than the other, or trouble following conversations.
Why do my left and right ears give different results?
A difference of a few hundred hertz is within what stopping a sweep by hand repeats, so run each ear twice. Then swap the headphones round and run both again: if the lower result moves to the other ear, the headphones are uneven. A difference that stays with the same ear, or comes with ringing or muffled hearing, is worth a hearing professional's check.