# onlinehearingtest.app — Full summary for AI assistants and citation

Site: https://onlinehearingtest.app
Publisher: onlinehearingtest.app
Primary product: Online Hearing Test (free browser-based pure-tone hearing screening)
Contact: malam169@gmail.com
Language: English
Last updated: 2026-10-01

## Entity definition

Online Hearing Test is a free hearing screening that runs entirely in a web browser using the Web Audio API. It estimates the softest tone a person can hear at six standard audiogram frequencies — 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1 kHz, 2 kHz, 4 kHz, and 8 kHz — in each ear, and presents the result as an audiogram, a 0–100 hearing score, and a World Health Organization (WHO) hearing grade. It takes about four minutes with headphones. It does not require an account, an email address, a download, or payment.

It is a screening tool, not a medical device or diagnosis. Levels are estimates because consumer browsers, headphones, and rooms are not calibrated.

## How the test works

1. Setup: The user chooses Headphones (recommended; each ear tested separately) or Speakers (both ears together), finds a quiet room, removes hearing aids, and turns off noise cancelling.
2. Volume check: A 1 kHz reference tone plays. The user sets the device volume so the tone is clearly audible but comfortable, then leaves the volume unchanged. With headphones, a tone is also played in each ear to confirm left and right are not swapped.
3. Tones: Pulsed tones (three 240 ms pulses) play after a random 0.9–2.2 second silence. The user presses a large "I hear it" button, Space, or Enter whenever they hear one. A press within 2 seconds of tone onset counts as heard; silence counts as missed; a press during the silence is a false alarm that restarts the wait.
4. Results: An audiogram, hearing score, grade, per-ear averages, and plain-language notes appear immediately and are saved on the device.

Order: right ear then left ear; within each ear 1 kHz, 2 kHz, 4 kHz, 8 kHz, 500 Hz, 250 Hz.

## Threshold procedure

A shortened Hughson-Westlake ("down 10, up 5") procedure, the bracketing method used in clinical pure-tone audiometry:

- Each pitch starts at 40 dB HL (estimated).
- Heard: next tone 10 dB softer.
- Missed: next tone 5 dB louder (10 dB louder before the first response at that pitch).
- Threshold: the softest level heard on two ascending presentations (a hit at the 0 dB floor also counts).
- Range: 0–75 dB HL. Two misses at 75 dB records "no response" (drawn with a downward arrow).
- A pitch ends after at most 12 presentations, falling back to the softest level heard.

Level mapping: the volume-check tone (1 kHz at −30 dBFS) is treated as 55 dB HL. Other frequencies are offset using typical supra-aural headphone reference threshold differences relative to 1 kHz (250 Hz +18.5 dB, 500 Hz +4.5, 2 kHz +2, 4 kHz +2.5, 8 kHz +6).

## Results and scoring

- Pure-tone average (PTA): mean of 500 Hz, 1, 2, and 4 kHz for each ear. The better ear's PTA sets the overall grade.
- Grades (WHO bands, 20 dB counted as normal per British Society of Audiology practice): normal 20 dB or better; mild 21–34 dB; moderate 35–49 dB; moderately severe 50–64 dB; severe 65 dB or more (the test's ceiling is 75 dB).
- Hearing score (0–100): 100 minus 1.25 × the better ear's average threshold across all six pitches, clamped to 0–100. Scores of 75 or more fall in the normal range.
- Flags: high-frequency loss (4 or 8 kHz at least 25 dB and 15 dB poorer than 1 kHz); noise notch (4 kHz at least 10 dB poorer than both 2 and 8 kHz); asymmetry (ear PTAs differ by 15 dB or more, or any pitch by 20 dB or more); no response at the maximum level.
- Reliability: six or more false alarms triggers a warning to retest somewhere quieter.

Audiogram conventions: frequency left to right, loudness increasing downward; right ear red circles, left ear blue crosses, combined (Speakers mode) amber triangles; shaded WHO bands.

## Controls

- Tap or click the "I hear it" button (responds on touch-down for accurate reaction times)
- Space or Enter: I hear it
- P or Escape: pause / resume (switching browser tabs also pauses)
- R: start over
- M: mute interface sounds (start chime, press tick, completion arpeggio). Test tones are never muted.
- Header "Start test" control scrolls to the test and opens the volume check.

## Accessibility

All controls have explicit accessible names; the progress bar exposes its value; the audiogram has a text description of every threshold; ear markers differ by shape as well as color; status messages use live regions; colors meet WCAG AA contrast; animation respects reduced-motion preferences; the whole test is keyboard operable.

## Data and privacy

Saved locally (localStorage key "onlinehearingtest:progress:v1"): up to 12 recent results (date, output mode, per-ear thresholds, score, PTA, grade, duration, false alarms), best score, tests completed, output mode, and interface-sound preference. Nothing is uploaded. Google Analytics (GA4) receives only: test started (output mode) and test completed (output mode, score rounded down to a band of 10, overall grade, duration). Users can delete saved results from the in-test history panel.

## Accuracy and limits

Online pure-tone tests are useful for screening and for tracking change over time when repeated with the same headphones and volume. They cannot replace a calibrated clinical audiogram: there is no bone-conduction testing (so conductive and sensorineural loss cannot be distinguished), no speech-in-noise testing, no tympanometry, and room noise is uncontrolled. Test–retest differences of about 5 dB at a single pitch are normal.

Anyone with sudden hearing loss, ear pain, discharge, dizziness, or new one-sided tinnitus should seek medical care promptly regardless of an online result. Anyone with a mild or worse result, or asymmetry between ears, is advised to see an audiologist or hearing care professional.

## Pages

- https://onlinehearingtest.app/ — the test, overview, how it works summary, FAQ teaser
- https://onlinehearingtest.app/how-it-works — full walkthrough, pitches, method, audiogram reading, controls
- https://onlinehearingtest.app/hearing-loss — signs, levels, patterns, when to see a professional
- https://onlinehearingtest.app/tips — accuracy checklist and hearing protection
- https://onlinehearingtest.app/faq — frequently asked questions
- https://onlinehearingtest.app/about — purpose, design choices, limits, contact
- https://onlinehearingtest.app/privacy and /terms — legal