Screen the top tones, 4 kHz and 8 kHz, ear by ear, then test higher with a tone generator
Processed in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. Updated on 24 Oct 2026.Sensitivity at the top of the range falls with age for nearly everybody, so the high tones are the first place a change shows. This screening plays its highest tones, 4 kHz and 8 kHz, in each ear in turn, with headphones on. It does not go above 8 kHz: to find your own upper limit, such as whether you still hear 15 kHz, play a single tone with the Tone Generator and raise it until it disappears.
Start with is already set to Right ear; switch to Left ear if you prefer, with headphones on.
Press Start the screening; the highest tones in the run are 4 kHz and 8 kHz.
Answer I heard it or I did not hear it for each tone, honestly.
Compare the 4k and 8k points with the rest of the chart. A laptop speaker that rolls off at the top gives the same shape.
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.
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.
The rest of the article, and all 7 questions about Hearing Screening, are on the Hearing Screening page.
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.
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.
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: 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 · Headphone Frequency Test – Hear where your headphones stop, by ear rather than by chart · Speed Up Audio – Make audio faster or slower without the chipmunk voice · 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.
In the collection Audio Test Tools.