About us
A free hearing test that respects your time and privacy
onlinehearingtest.app is an independent, free hearing screening that runs entirely in your browser. We built it so anyone with headphones can find out in a few minutes whether their hearing is in the normal range — without handing over contact details first.
Take the free hearing testWhy it exists
Most people wait years to check their hearing
Hearing loss usually creeps in so slowly that it is easy to blame mumbling actors and noisy restaurants instead. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 1.5 billion people live with some degree of hearing loss, and that most of it could be identified earlier with simple screening.
A quick, private test at home is the lowest-friction first step. If your result is normal, you have a baseline to compare against next year. If it is not, you walk into a professional appointment with a concrete reason and an audiogram to show.
No gate before the result
Many hearing tests online are lead forms: they ask for your email, phone number, or ZIP code before showing anything. This one shows your full audiogram the moment you finish, and never asks who you are.
Private by default
Tones are generated and responses scored in your browser. Your audiograms are stored only in local storage on your device. Analytics record that a test happened, never what your hearing looks like.
A method, not a quiz
Rather than asking whether you can hear a handful of fixed sounds, the test adapts level by level to find your actual threshold at each pitch, with random timing and false-alarm checks.
Honest about its limits
A browser cannot be calibrated like an audiometer. Every result is labelled as an estimate and a screening, and points you to a professional whenever the numbers suggest it.
How it is built
The design choices behind the test
Pure-tone audiometry has been the backbone of hearing assessment since the first electronic audiometers of the 1920s, and the bracketing method audiologists still use was described by Hughson and Westlake in 1944. We kept its proven pieces and adapted only what a browser requires. The step-by-step walkthrough is in how the test works.
Pure tones at audiogram pitches
Six octave-spaced frequencies — 250 Hz to 8 kHz — match the standard clinical audiogram, so you can hold your result next to a professional one and read them the same way.
Hughson-Westlake, shortened
Audiologists find thresholds with a "down 10, up 5" bracketing procedure. We use the same rule and accept the softest level heard twice on an ascending run — enough precision for screening in about four minutes.
Pulsed tones and random gaps
Each beep is three short pulses, which are easier to separate from tinnitus and room noise. Silences vary randomly so a steady rhythm of presses cannot fake a result; early presses restart the wait.
Anchored on your volume check
The 1 kHz reference tone ties the digital level to your device volume, and per-frequency corrections from standard reference thresholds keep the low and high pitches on the same dB HL scale.
Clinical conventions on the chart
Right ear red circles, left ear blue crosses, loudness increasing downward, and WHO grade bands in the background. The shapes carry the meaning on their own, so the chart works without color.
Built for any screen
The whole test — instructions, the response button, and the progress bar — fits on one phone screen. On desktop, Space and Enter respond, P pauses, R restarts, and M mutes interface sounds.
Limits
What this test cannot do
It cannot diagnose. It does not test bone conduction, so it cannot tell conductive from sensorineural loss. It does not measure speech understanding in calibrated noise, check the eardrum, or fit hearing aids. Results depend on your headphones, volume, and room, which is why levels are reported as estimates.
If you have sudden hearing loss, ear pain, discharge, dizziness, or new ringing in one ear, do not rely on any online test — seek medical care promptly.
Contact
Feedback and questions
Found a bug, have a suggestion, or work in hearing care and want to share feedback on the method? Email malam169@gmail.com. How we handle data is described in the Privacy Policy; the medical disclaimer is part of our Terms.
Ready to check your hearing?
Grab headphones, find a quiet spot, and get your audiogram in about four minutes. Free, with nothing to install.
Take the free hearing test