This hearing frequency test plays a pure tone that sweeps up or down through your headphones and finds the highest and the lowest pitch you can hear, in each ear separately. Like a classic frequency sweep hearing test, each result comes from two sweeps: one where the tone fades out of your hearing and one where it comes back, so a late or early press evens out. It runs in any modern browser on Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone and ChromeOS, plays every tone at the level you set with a 1 kHz check tone, and fades each tone in and out so nothing clicks or jumps. It is a frequency hearing test for curiosity and for checking your equipment, not a medical hearing test.
How to take the hearing frequency test
- Use headphones. Turn your device volume down to about a quarter before you start.
- Press Check volume and raise the volume slowly until the 1 kHz tone is quiet but clear. Press it again to stop, then leave the volume alone.
- Press Play left and Play right to confirm each beep comes from the right side.
- Choose Highest tone or Lowest tone, and the ear to test.
- Press Start the test. When the tone disappears, press I can't hear it, or the Space bar.
- The tone then comes back from silence. Press I hear it now as soon as you hear it. The result is the point between the two presses.
- Test the other ear, then switch to the other test. Copy results saves a summary.
Never turn the volume up to chase a tone you cannot hear. A high tone can be loud even when you cannot hear it, and the next tone will be louder still. Stop at once if any tone feels uncomfortable.
What your result means
| Reading | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Highest tone | The top of your hearing range in that ear, at the test level |
| Lowest tone | The bottom of your range, or of what your headphones can play |
| Lost and back at | Where you lost the tone and where you heard it again. Close numbers mean a steady result |
| Device limit | The highest tone your sound hardware can play, half its sample rate less a margin |
| Bars under the scale | The range each ear heard: green for left, yellow for right, white for both together |
The striped part of the scale is the main speech range. If both your results sit outside it, everyday hearing for speech is not limited by the edges of your range.
Typical upper limits by age
The upper limit is the part of hearing that changes first. Research gives a clear picture of the trend:
- Young adults. In a study of people aged 19 to 25 with healthy ears, the median threshold was 42 dB at 16 kHz, 64 dB at 18 kHz and 90 dB at 20 kHz (Ashihara, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2007). At the quiet level this test uses, that puts the cutoff for a typical young adult somewhere between 16 and 18 kHz.
- With age. A study of 645 people aged 5 to 90 with healthy ears, tested up to 20 kHz, found that hearing thresholds rise both with frequency and with age (Rodríguez Valiente and others, International Journal of Audiology, 2014). In other words, the highest tones need the most volume to be heard, and they need more as you get older.
- Later life. According to the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, about one in three people aged 65 to 74 has hearing loss, and nearly half of those over 75 have difficulty hearing.
| Highest tone you hear | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| 17 kHz and above | Excellent high-frequency hearing, most common in teenagers and young adults |
| 14 to 17 kHz | A common adult result |
| 10 to 14 kHz | Common from middle age on. Speech is rarely affected |
| 8 to 10 kHz | The top of the speech range is close. A proper hearing test is worthwhile if speech sounds muffled |
| Below 8 kHz | See a hearing professional for an audiogram |
Why headphones work and laptop speakers do not
Headphones put a small speaker right at your ear, so they can play the whole range, including deep bass, at a low volume. Laptop and phone speakers are tiny and fade out well before the lowest notes, often below about 150 to 200 Hz, so a low test through them shows the speaker's limit. They also send sound to both ears, which is why the test plays to both ears in Speakers mode. For the high test, turn off sound effects such as bass boost, spatial sound or Dolby enhancements, which can colour the tones. If you are not sure your headphones play evenly, run the headphone test first.
One ear hears less than the other
A gap between ears can come from the headphones, the fit or your hearing. Check in this order:
- Swap the headphones round and test again. If the weak side moves with the headphones, a driver is failing or blocked. The left right audio test confirms it.
- Check the balance setting. On Windows, open Settings, then System, then Sound, pick your headphones and look at the Left and Right levels under Output settings. On a Mac, open System Settings, then Sound, and check the Balance slider.
- Check the fit. An earbud that does not seal loses bass and high tones. Try another tip size, and clean any wax from the mesh.
- If the gap stays, have your hearing checked, especially if it is new or comes with ringing.
If one side plays nothing at all, follow the steps for headphones not working.
Your result drops after a loud day
After a concert, a noisy job or a long session with loud headphones, the top of your range can drop for a day or two, often with ringing. Test again after a quiet day. If the result comes back, that was a warning: limit the time and level of loud sound, which the decibel meter can measure. If it does not come back, see a hearing professional. Sudden hearing loss in one ear needs a doctor the same day.
Testing the lowest tones
Ears are far less sensitive to deep bass than to mid tones, so the low test plays its tone 10 dB louder than the check tone. Even so, as the tone falls into the tens of hertz you will start to feel it as a flutter or pressure rather than hear a clear pitch, and many headphones fade out before that point. Press I can't hear it when you no longer hear a tone, not when you stop feeling it. To listen to one frequency at a time, use the tone generator, or play a whole frequency sweep.
What this test cannot tell you
It measures where your hearing range ends at one comfortable level on your own headphones, which depend on their quality and fit. It cannot measure how quiet a sound you can hear at each frequency, which is what an audiogram shows, and it cannot diagnose hearing loss, tinnitus or its cause. The sound card limits the top: at a 44.1 kHz sample rate it cannot play much above 20 kHz. Treat a surprising result as a reason to see a hearing professional, not as a diagnosis.
Hearing frequency test questions
What frequency range can humans hear?
The range usually quoted is 20 Hz to 20 kHz, but that is the outer edge for young, healthy ears. The top of the range drops gradually with age, which is normal. Speech sits mostly between about 250 Hz and 8 kHz, so losing the very top rarely affects conversation.
Is this a medical hearing test?
No. It finds the edges of the range you can hear on your own equipment, at one quiet level. A hearing professional measures an audiogram instead: the quietest sound you can hear at each frequency from 250 Hz to 8 kHz, with calibrated headphones in a quiet booth. See one if speech sounds muffled, one ear seems weaker or you have ringing that does not go away.
Why can't I hear 20 kHz?
Almost nobody can at a safe volume. In a lab study of young adults aged 19 to 25, a 20 kHz tone had to reach about 90 dB, close to the noise of a motorcycle, before half of them heard it, compared with about 42 dB at 16 kHz. Losing the tone somewhere in the high teens is a normal result.
Why does my laptop not play the lowest tones?
Small speakers cannot move enough air to make deep bass, so laptop and phone speakers fade out long before 20 Hz. The low test then measures the speaker, not your ears. Headphones that seal or sit on the ear reach much lower and give a real result.
Can I use Bluetooth headphones?
Yes. The test works with any headphones, and the delay of Bluetooth does not matter here. Some wireless earbuds and sound settings trim the very highest tones, so if your result seems low, try wired headphones for comparison.
Why does the tone get louder and quieter as it moves?
Your ears are most sensitive around 2 to 5 kHz and much less sensitive at the extremes, and every pair of headphones has its own peaks and dips. A tone at a fixed level therefore seems to swell and fade during the sweep. That is expected, so keep the volume where the check tone set it.