Measured in kilohertz ยท higher is better
Online Hearing Test
A tone climbs from 8 kHz upward. Stop it the moment you stop hearing it.
Before you start
The median on mouse is 15.2 kHz. Run the test and we will place you against it.
Compared against
Headphones are required. Laptop and phone speakers roll off above 12 kHz and will report their own limit as yours.
The other device classes
Trackpad
Touchscreen
Curve is a fitted baseline plus 0 first attempts recorded here. The baseline is a curve, not a sample: no part of it is a real person. Baseline is an estimate: centred on the high frequency limit usually quoted for adults in their twenties and thirties. No published dataset was found for it. Per-device offsets are extrapolated, not measured. The baseline is dropped once a device class holds 5,000 real first attempts. See the full distribution.
Find your upper limit
Put on headphones and set a comfortable volume. The tone starts at 8 kHz and climbs. Press stop the moment you can no longer hear it, and do not change the volume.
Understanding your score
| Band | kHz | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Under 20 range | 17.5 and above | The full range. Rare past the early twenties. |
| Under 30 range | 15.5 to 17.4 | Typical for younger adults. |
| Under 40 range | 14.0 to 15.4 | The most common band. |
| Under 50 range | 12.0 to 13.9 | Normal age-related loss. |
| Under 60 range | 10.0 to 11.9 | Still well within normal speech range. |
| Below 10 kHz | 9.9 and below | Worth a real audiogram, especially if it is one-sided. |
What this can and cannot tell you
This measures one thing: the upper edge of your hearing range. It is the part of hearing that fades first and fades predictably, which makes it a useful rough marker. It is not an audiogram and it cannot detect the losses that actually matter day to day.
Real hearing loss usually shows up first in the 2 to 4 kHz region, where consonants live. That is why someone can pass this test comfortably and still struggle to follow a conversation in a noisy room. A browser cannot test that region reliably, because it requires calibrated absolute volume, and no web page knows how loud your headphones actually are.
Treat a low result as a prompt to book a proper test, not as a diagnosis. Treat a high result as no evidence of anything at all.
Getting a result that means something
Use headphones, not laptop speakers. Most built-in speakers roll off sharply above 12 kHz and physically cannot reproduce the top of this range, so speakers will report your hardware limit as your hearing limit.
Set the volume to comfortable at the starting tone and then do not touch it. Raising the volume as the tone climbs lets you chase a frequency you would not otherwise hear, which makes the number meaningless.
Run it in a quiet room. Background noise masks quiet high tones long before it masks anything else.
Test each ear separately if you can. Asymmetry between the two ears is a more useful signal than the absolute number, and it is the finding most worth taking to a clinician.
Why the upper limit falls with age
The hair cells in the cochlea that respond to the highest frequencies sit closest to the entrance, so they take the full force of every sound that enters the ear. They are also not replaced. The result is presbycusis: a slow, one-directional narrowing of the upper range that begins in the late teens and continues for life.
As a rough guide, the upper limit falls by around 1 kHz every decade after twenty, though noise exposure moves it far more than age does. Regular exposure to loud music or machinery without protection can cost more in five years than ageing costs in thirty.
Questions
- Can an online hearing test replace an audiologist?
- No. This measures your high-frequency cutoff with uncalibrated equipment. A clinical audiogram measures your threshold at each frequency in decibels, in a sound-treated room, with calibrated output. Only the second one can diagnose anything.
- Why did the tone disappear at the same point on two different devices?
- Then you are probably hitting your own limit rather than your hardware. If the two results differ by more than about 1 kHz, the lower one is likely your speakers or headphones, not your ears.
- I am 25 and cannot hear past 15 kHz. Is that bad?
- It is within the normal range and by itself is not a concern. Noise exposure moves this number far more than age does. What deserves attention is a large difference between your two ears, or trouble understanding speech in noise.
- Does volume affect the result?
- Yes, substantially, which is the main weakness of any browser-based hearing test. Set a comfortable level at the start and leave it alone. Turning it up mid-test inflates your result.