Online Hearing Test FAQ

An online hearing test is a hearing screening you take in a web browser. This one plays pure tones at six pitches — 250 Hz to 8 kHz — in each ear and adapts the loudness to find the softest beep you can hear. It produces an audiogram, a hearing score, and a hearing grade in about four minutes.

Yes. onlinehearingtest.app is completely free, with no sign-up, no email gate before your results, and no app to download. The test and your results run entirely in your browser.

Headphones are strongly recommended because they let the test check each ear separately and block room noise. You can choose Speakers mode, but it only measures both ears together and is less precise. Turn off noise cancelling and sound-enhancement features before you start.

About four minutes with headphones (two ears × six pitches) and about two minutes in Speakers mode. People who hear very soft tones finish a little faster.

Yes, for a measure of your natural hearing. If you want to see how well your hearing aids help, you can run a second test with them in — but keep in mind that aids process sound and the result will not be a standard audiogram.

Tap the large "I hear it" button, or press Space or Enter, every time you hear a beep. P or Escape pauses, R starts over, and M mutes the interface sounds. The test tones themselves are never muted.

Pitch runs left to right from low (250 Hz) to high (8 kHz). Loudness runs top to bottom: points near the top mean you heard very soft tones, points lower down mean the tone had to be louder. Red circles are your right ear and blue crosses your left, the same convention audiologists use. Shaded bands mark the normal, mild, moderate, and more severe ranges.

The 0–100 score summarizes how soft a sound your better ear could hear across all six pitches. Scores of 75 and above fall in the normal range, and most people with healthy hearing land in the 80s or 90s. It is a convenient number for comparing your own tests over time, not a medical measure.

Book a hearing test with an audiologist or hearing care professional. They can confirm the result with calibrated equipment, find the type and cause of any loss, and discuss options. If you notice a sudden drop in hearing, especially in one ear, seek medical care the same day — early treatment matters.

Thresholds of 20 dB HL or better are considered normal. Using World Health Organization bands: 21–34 dB is mild hearing loss, 35–49 dB moderate, 50–64 dB moderately severe, and 65 dB or more severe or worse.

High pitches are usually the first to decline, both with age and with noise exposure. A drop at 4 and 8 kHz is the most common pattern seen in hearing tests. A dip at 4 kHz that recovers at 8 kHz is often associated with noise.

Once a year is a good habit, and more often if you work around noise, use earbuds a lot, or notice changes. Re-testing with the same headphones and volume gives the most comparable results.

Online tests are good at screening — spotting whether hearing is likely normal or whether a professional check is worthwhile — and at tracking change when you re-test with the same setup. They cannot match a clinical audiogram, because browsers and headphones are not calibrated and home rooms are not sound-treated. Treat the dB values as estimates.

No. This is a screening tool. It cannot tell conductive from sensorineural hearing loss, test speech understanding in clinical conditions, or replace a professional evaluation. Use it to decide whether to get checked and to monitor your hearing between visits.

Small differences of around 5 dB at a single pitch are normal, even in clinics. Bigger changes usually come from a different volume, different headphones, background noise, or fatigue. A consistent shift across several pitches over repeated tests is worth discussing with a professional.

Tinnitus can make soft tones harder to pick out. The test uses pulsed beeps, which are easier to distinguish from a steady ring than a continuous tone. If tinnitus is new, loud, or one-sided, talk to a doctor.

Your results are saved only in your own browser's local storage — the last 12 tests, your best score, and your settings. They are never uploaded. Anonymous analytics record that a test was started or finished and a coarse score band, never your audiogram.

Yes. The test is designed for portrait phones with a large tap button and fits on one screen. Connect your headphones before starting so the volume check and the test use the same output.

Open the history panel from the test toolbar and choose "Delete saved results", then confirm with a second tap. You can also clear this site's data in your browser settings.

Any current browser with JavaScript and the Web Audio API: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari on desktop and mobile. If you hear nothing, check the device volume, the output device, and that the browser tab is not muted.