Hearing test
Put on wired headphones. The highest pitch each ear hears, a tone check per ear, or a chart of a real audiogram.
Start quiet. Turn your volume low before you press anything. Test tones are capped in this page, but your device volume is not; stop if anything is uncomfortable.
Set your device volume so this tone is soft but clear, then tap Volume is set. Keep it there for the whole test.
Right ear8,000 Hz
Right ear1,000 Hz
Three short beeps play at each level. Answer after them. The level goes 10 dB down after a yes and 5 dB up after a no until the same level is heard twice on the way up. Move the slider to try a level yourself.
| Hz | O Right | X Left | < Right bone | > Left bone |
|---|
Type the dB HL number for each symbol on your audiogram (−10 to 120). Leave a box empty if it was not tested. Values are kept on this device only.
Results
- Right ear
- –
- Left ear
- –
- Both
- –
The highest tone you said you heard, at a fixed level 10 dB above the volume check. Headphones and speakers often stop before the ear does: many give little above 15–16 kHz, so a low number here may be the headphones. Try another pair before you read much into it.
Not dB HL, not calibrated. Levels are relative to this device at its current volume, so they only compare your two ears, or one day with another on the same headphones.
Shaded bands: the hearing-loss grades of the WHO/GBD expert group, which apply to the average of 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz in the better ear, not to single frequencies. Symbols: O right, X left, < right bone, > left bone (ASHA).
How to use the hearing test
- Sit somewhere quiet and put on wired headphones. Turn the device volume low.
- Tap Play 1 kHz check tone and raise the volume until the tone is soft but clear. Tap Volume is set and do not touch the volume again until you finish.
- Highest pitch: pick an ear and press Start. Tones climb from 8,000 Hz; answer I hear it or I don't for each. Fine mode goes back over the last gap in 250 Hz steps.
- Tone check: press Start and answer for each set of beeps. It tests 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000, 500 and 250 Hz in that order, right ear then left, and plots each ear as you go.
- Plot audiogram: type the numbers from a hearing test you had and download the chart as PNG or SVG.
How the highest-pitch test works
The page plays a 1.5-second sine tone at 8, 10, 12 kHz and then every 1,000 Hz up to 20,000 Hz, all at the same level, 10 dB above the volume-check tone. The result is the highest step you said yes to. In fine mode, a miss sends it back to fill the gap: heard 15,000 and missed 16,000 means it then plays 15,250, 15,500 and 15,750 Hz. Below 8,000 Hz almost everyone hears a tone at this level, so the ladder starts there; if you miss 8 kHz, use the tone check instead.
The number is real for your ear plus your headphones, not for your ear alone. Many headphones and nearly all laptop and phone speakers lose a lot above 15–16 kHz. High tones also have short wavelengths, so how the earcup sits can change what you hear by several dB; reseat the headphones and repeat if a result looks odd. The page shows no “normal for your age” line: the open studies we checked measure calibrated thresholds at fixed high frequencies, which cannot be matched to an uncalibrated test, and the standard age tables (ISO 7029) are not free to read.
The tone check, and what relative dB means
For each frequency the page looks for the quietest level you hear, the way a clinic does it (British Society of Audiology, 2018): it starts at the volume-check level, goes 10 dB down after every yes and 5 dB up after every no, and stops when you hear the same level twice on the way up. The level runs from 0 to 70 relative dB, where 70 is the loudest the page will play and 40 is the volume-check level. A result of 25 means you heard that tone 15 dB quieter than the volume check.
Relative dB is not dB HL. Real audiograms use dB HL, a standard reference level for each frequency that clinic earphones are calibrated to. Your headphones are not, and they are louder at some frequencies than others, so a dip at 8,000 Hz may be the headphones. What the chart can show is a difference between your ears on the same headphones: if one ear needs more than 10 dB more at a frequency, the page points it out. Swap the headphones round (left cup on the right ear) and test again; if the weak side follows the cup, it is the headphones.
Reading an audiogram
An audiogram puts frequency across the top, low pitches on the left, and hearing level down the side, with louder (worse) further down. By ASHA's guidelines one octave across equals 20 dB down, which is how this chart is drawn, from 125 to 8,000 Hz and −10 to 120 dB HL. The right ear is a red O, the left a blue X; bone-conduction results, measured with a vibrator behind the ear, are < for the right and > for the left. A gap between the O or X and the bracket at the same frequency (an air-bone gap) points to the outer or middle ear rather than the inner ear; an audiologist reads that, this page does not.
| Grade | dB HL | In a quiet room |
|---|---|---|
| Normal hearing | −10 to 19.9 | Excellent or good hearing |
| Mild | 20 to 34.9 | Does not have problems hearing what is said |
| Moderate | 35 to 49.9 | May have difficulty hearing a normal voice |
| Moderately severe | 50 to 64.9 | Can hear loud speech |
| Severe | 65 to 79.9 | Can hear loud speech directly in one's ear |
| Profound | 80 to 94.9 | Has great difficulty hearing |
| Complete or total | 95 or more | Profoundly deaf, hears no speech or loud sounds |
Worked example. Right ear 15, 20, 30 and 45 dB HL at 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz averages (15 + 20 + 30 + 45) / 4 = 27.5 dB HL, which is in the mild band. The same grades call it unilateral when the better ear is under 20 dB HL and the worse ear is 35 or more. The plotter works these out for each ear, but the grade on your clinic report is the one that counts.
What it cannot do
- It is not a medical test and not a diagnosis. It cannot tell you whether you have hearing loss or what kind.
- It is not calibrated. It does not know how loud your headphones are, so tone-check levels are relative dB of this device, never dB HL.
- Results depend on your headphones and the room. Background noise hides quiet tones, and many headphones roll off above about 15 kHz.
- Bluetooth headphones and noise-cancelling or “enhancement” processing change the sound (some boost or cut high tones, some add a delay or mix the channels). Use wired headphones with effects off; mono audio in the accessibility settings sends both channels to both ears.
- It cannot test bone conduction; the bone columns in the plotter are for numbers you already have.
- Children, and anyone with sudden hearing loss, ringing, pain, dizziness or discharge in an ear, should see a doctor or hearing professional rather than test themselves. Sudden hearing loss in one ear is urgent.
Privacy
Every tone is made in this page with Web Audio; no sound files are downloaded and no answer leaves your device. The audiogram values you type are saved only in this browser's localStorage so they are there next time; Clear saved values deletes them. Tone-check results are not saved. The page counts an anonymous page view and the fixed words hearing-start, hearing-done and hearing-plot, never a frequency, level or value.
Questions
Can an online hearing test tell me if I have hearing loss?
No. A hearing test that counts uses an audiometer calibrated to dB HL, in a quiet booth, run by a professional. This page does not know how loud your headphones are, so it can only compare your ears with each other and show changes on the same device. If you notice a difference between your ears, ringing, or a sudden drop in hearing, see a hearing professional.
What is the highest frequency humans can hear?
There is no single number: the top of the range differs between people and usually falls with age. On this page the limit you find is often set by the headphones or speaker, which may stop well before your ear does, so try more than one pair before reading much into it.
Why is the right ear a red O and the left ear a blue X on an audiogram?
It is the convention audiologists use: ASHA's audiometric symbols mark air-conduction thresholds with O for the right ear and X for the left, and its public guide says red O symbols typically represent the right ear and blue X the left. Bone conduction uses < for the right ear and > for the left.
How do I read the numbers on my audiogram?
Each symbol is the quietest level, in dB HL, that ear heard at that frequency. Lower on the chart means a louder sound was needed. The WHO grades use the average of 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz in the better ear: under 20 dB HL is normal hearing, 20 to 34.9 mild, 35 to 49.9 moderate, 50 to 64.9 moderately severe, 65 to 79.9 severe, 80 to 94.9 profound, 95 and over complete.
Sources, fetched 2026-10-26 and kept with their URLs in reference.json: grades, Olusanya, Davis & Hoffman, Bulletin of the WHO 2019, Table 2; symbols and chart scale, ASHA Guidelines for Audiometric Symbols (1990); red O and blue X, ASHA “The Audiogram”; the 10-down 5-up search and test order, British Society of Audiology Recommended Procedure (2018).