A rough chart of which tones you could hear, one ear at a time. Not a test
Processed in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. Updated on 24 Oct 2026.Playing tones one ear at a time shows roughly which frequencies you still hear comfortably, and age shows first above 8 kHz. Not a medical test and not a diagnosis: if something looks wrong, see an audiologist. Everything runs inside your browser.
Put on headphones in a quiet room and set the system volume as described under Before you start.
Choose Left ear or Right ear under Start with, then press Start the screening.
After each tone press I heard it or I did not hear it; press Play it again if you missed it.
Read the relative chart for both ears when it ends. It is a screening, not a diagnosis; take any concern to an audiologist.
This page plays tones at the six frequencies a clinical audiogram uses, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 and 8000 Hz, one ear at a time, starting loud and getting quieter in ten decibel steps. You say whether you heard each one, and the answers are drawn as a chart with the shape of an audiogram.
A clinical audiogram is measured in dB HL, a scale defined against calibrated headphones on a calibrated audiometer in a sound-treated booth. None of those three things exists here. The output level of your device is unknown, it changes with the system volume slider, and your room has noise of its own. So this page produces no dB HL figure, describes no result as normal or otherwise, and names no condition. It cannot diagnose anything, and it is not intended to.
What it can honestly show is shape and symmetry: whether the high tones needed noticeably more volume than the low ones, and whether one ear needed more than the other. Both are observations worth taking to an audiologist, who can measure them properly. If anything about your hearing concerns you, see one; a browser page is not a reason to wait, and not a reason to be reassured.
Use headphones or earphones. Laptop speakers reach both ears, so testing one ear at a time is impossible without them. Find the quietest room you have, turn off fans and notifications, and set the system volume so the first 1 kHz tone at the loudest step is clearly audible but comfortable. Then leave the volume alone, because every level afterwards is measured relative to that one.
Answer honestly. Pressing "I heard it" when you are not sure moves the chart, and the only person misled is you. The whole run takes about three minutes and roughly thirty presses, because the ladder brackets each frequency rather than marching through every level.
Not in absolute terms, and this page does not claim to be one. A clinical result is measured in dB HL against calibrated headphones and a calibrated audiometer in a quiet booth. A browser knows none of those quantities, so the chart here shows relative levels on your own device and nothing more.
Speakers reach both ears at once, which makes testing one ear at a time impossible. Headphones or earphones send each tone to a single side, which is the only way the left and right results can be compared. Check that they are the right way round before starting, because a swap reverses the whole chart.
Six frequencies are standard: 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 and 8000 hertz. Speech lives mostly between 500 and 4000, which is why those four matter most in conversation, while 8000 tends to change earliest with age. The same six are played here, starting at 1 kHz as audiometry does.
A difference between ears is the single result here most worth following up, but check the ordinary causes first: an earphone seated badly, a channel balance set off centre, or wax. Repeat the screening with the headphones swapped left to right. A difference that survives both is worth an appointment with an audiologist.
No, and no browser page can. Only a qualified audiologist using calibrated equipment can measure hearing and interpret the result. Use this screening to notice a pattern worth mentioning, then book a proper appointment. Anything that concerns you deserves professional attention rather than a chart from a website.
Most likely the hardware rather than your ears. Laptop speakers and many earphones produce very little below 300 Hz, and a tone that is not being played cannot be heard. Try a different pair of headphones before reading anything into a low-frequency result, and check the volume is where you set it.
Hearing above about 15 kHz usually fades with age, which is why a 15 kHz tone is audible to most teenagers and to fewer adults each decade. This screening stops at 8 kHz, the highest frequency a clinical audiogram uses, so it will not answer that. Use the Tone Generator, which has a 15 kHz preset, and listen for yourself.
Still stuck? Ask about Hearing Screening and anybody who knows can answer. No account needed.
Same job, other tools: Headphone Frequency Test – Hear where your headphones stop, by ear rather than by chart · Frequency Generator – Generate a steady test frequency for speakers, headphones or instruments · Audio Sweep Generator – Play a slow logarithmic sweep and hear every rattle in the room · Sweep Tone Generator – Sweep smoothly between two frequencies over a time you choose · Mic Test – See your voice on a live waveform and hear it played straight back.
On the related tools: Song Key Changer – Transpose a song up or down to suit your voice or instrument, at the same tempo.
Also works as: Hearing Test Online.
In the collection Audio Test Tools.