Best Online Hearing Test: Choosing the right one for you

Hearing problems rarely appear overnight — if they did, people with hearing loss probably wouldn’t take an average of seven years before receiving a proper assessment.1 Even people who know they have a problem may not realize the extent of their hearing loss. According to one study, underestimating and overestimating hearing loss can be incredibly common.2

So, should everyone just book an appointment with an audiologist and pay for a professional hearing test? Even in an ideal world (one where insurance coverage and economics didn’t play a role), this would probably be impractical.

Fortunately, technological and societal changes mean that today you can test your hearing online. You only need an internet-connected device and, ideally, a decent pair of headphones. So, which online hearing test is best? The purpose of this guide is to help you identify the best online hearing test for you — we tried them ourselves, and we'll share all of the important details here.

Here’s a snapshot of our top picks without further delay.

At Innerbody Research, we thoroughly evaluate every product or service that we review, including these hearing tests. Our testing team has taken each of the top tests on the market several times, and our experiences have informed our recommendations so you can rest assured you’re taking the test that’s right for you.

To complement our hands-on experience, our team pored over dozens of scholarly journal articles related to hearing loss, tinnitus, and the diagnostic criteria audiologists use to determine whether someone is a candidate for a hearing aid. Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions about staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

To determine the best hearing test for most people, we examined the top available tests with an eye toward four criteria we felt were most pertinent to the average user. These were diagnostic accuracy, speed, helpfulness, and the cost and quality of hearing aids from the testing company (where available).

Diagnostic accuracy

Winner: Audicus

In the simplest terms, this criterion is all about whether a test can tell you accurately if you may have some hearing loss. No single online hearing test is going to be as accurate as the battery of tests available to you at an audiologist’s office. But those office trips cost time and money, so ensuring you even need to go in the first place — and having some results as the starting point for a conversation with your doctor — is extremely useful.

There are three approaches to testing hearing online that we evaluated, and each has advantages and limitations. These are:

• Random interval tone tests: This is a type of pure-tone testing in which a tone plays without you knowing when it will happen, and you click a button when you think you hear something.3
• Controlled interval tone tests: In this version of pure-tone testing, you control when the tone plays and adjust the volume until it’s the softest it can be while still being audible.
• Background noise tests: This is a speech test in which a speaker says numbers or words against background noise (often white noise), and you have to select those numbers or words from a list in front of you.4

Audicus won our preference for accuracy with its modified controlled interval tone test. After you find the volume at which you can no longer hear a given frequency, the test increases that volume fractionally toward the last intensity you can perceive. By doing so, it better ascertains an exact volume range where hearing loss may be present.

Helpfulness

Winner: MDHearing

If you take a tone-based hearing test, you should get a small chart at the end of the test called an audiogram. This depicts the volumes at which you were able to detect specific frequencies in each ear. It looks like this:

MDHearing offers the only test that will provide you with an audiogram. It’s hard to know why; perhaps there’s a legal concern about giving users what amounts to a medical document. Whatever the reason, most tests only say that you are or are not a candidate for a hearing aid, while some go so far as to define your hearing as normal, mild loss, etc.

We selected MDHearing in this category because, in addition to that audiogram, it gives you a sense of the categories audiologists actually use to define the severity of a person’s hearing loss, and it places your hearing on that spectrum in a way that’s easy to understand:5

Ultimately, it’s better that you can’t perfectly diagnose your hearing loss online, as you might end up getting a hearing aid when you don’t actually need one or using one improperly. The best thing you can do with a result that suggests hearing loss is to take it to an audiologist and get more thoroughly evaluated.

Speed

Winner: MDHearing

If you want to get results as quickly as possible, MDHearing offers the fastest test of the bunch. The execution of the test itself is as fast or faster than others, but the setup process is also much smoother. Some tests require you to take your headphones off and rub your hands together near your nose, then remember what that volume felt like as the system plays its own recording of hands rubbing together. Not only is this an inexact way to set your volume, but it also takes a few minutes to get it right.

Once inside the MDHearing test, you can quickly move the slider for each tone all the way to the left, then creep it toward the right and click next whenever you begin to hear the tone. Our testers typically spent less than three minutes on this test from start to finish.

Cost and quality of associated hearing aids

Winner: Audicus

If you want to get hearing aids from the same company that administers your test, you’ll be able to do so with several of the companies in this guide. Audicus hearing aids are among our favorites in terms of a balance between cost and quality. The company offers various styles and capabilities, with prices around the middle of the pack.

MDHearing’s selection is definitely less expensive than most others, so if cost is your main concern, and you want to stick with the company that administered your online test, that would be a good place to start.

Common signs of hearing loss include:6

• Friends or family telling you that you're losing your hearing
• Trouble making out words in a conversation when there's background noise
• Difficulty distinguishing certain consonants that sound similar
• Sounds in general have gotten muted or fuzzy
• Noticing you have to turn up the volume higher than you used to
• Increasingly taking a back seat in conversation
• Changes to your social patterns due to loud settings
• Needing people to repeat themselves or talk louder and directly in your direction
• Loved ones suspecting dementia

The insidious thing about hearing loss is that it usually occurs very gradually. This makes it easy to overlook until the loss is pronounced.

What can cause hearing loss?

Hearing loss can arise in any individual, and its potential causes are wide-ranging. If you’re genetically predisposed to hearing loss, aging may be the only factor affecting its progress. But whether or not you have a predisposition, numerous other factors can cause hearing loss, as well, including:5

• Chronic exposure to loud sounds (construction workers, musicians, etc.)
• Infections of the inner or outer ear
• Fluid in the inner ear
• Thick waxy buildup
• Obstruction with a foreign object
• Damage to the tube connecting the ears and throat
• Benign bone growths
• Perforated ear drum
• Tumors
• Certain medications

This is just a sampling of some common causes, and the breadth of possibilities should encourage you to see a doctor in person if your online test results show any hearing loss — or if they don’t, but you still have trouble hearing.

For most people with hearing loss, they (or loved ones) eventually notice one or more of the aforementioned signs one day and realize the condition probably has been progressing for a while. If this describes you, then an online hearing test is a great place to begin your journey toward identifying a problem and improving your situation.

Online hearing tests are valuable if:

• You sense that you may have some hearing loss that has been gradually happening
• Friends or family suggest you might be experiencing hearing loss based on observations and interactions
• You are over 60 years old (hearing loss is very natural as we age, and so often we don't realize it's happening)
• You're a veteran or are currently enlisted
• You've spent considerable time in loud settings such as stadiums, concert venues, construction sites, oil rigs, or factories
• Your parent or parents developed hearing problems
• You experience a persistent ringing, buzzing, clicking, or similar sound (tinnitus)

Limitations of online hearing tests

There are a few things that can limit the ability for an online test to measure your hearing accurately. For example, many tests ask you to set your device’s volume to 100% or 50%, depending on the test design. But different devices put out stronger or weaker signals at max volume or at 50%. And differences in the quality of your headphones — from their fit to their driver size — will impact how easily you can hear aspects of a test.

We consider these tests a great place to begin your journey because there are also many more tests audiologists and other health professionals can perform to determine the nature, severity, and even the cause of your hearing loss. A test result indicating hearing loss would tell you to go see a professional. And if you’re confident that you may have hearing loss despite an online test saying otherwise, it’s still a good idea to make an appointment.

There are cases in which hearing loss is not gradual, but instead rapid and more alarming. This phenomenon — known as sudden onset hearing loss — is defined as noticeable hearing loss having occurred in 72 hours or less.

If that describes your situation — and especially if you notice the loss in one ear — then an online hearing test should not be your first step. Instead, you should promptly go to a medical center to be seen by a health professional in person for evaluation, as sudden onset hearing loss can be associated with serious conditions.

Why check for hearing loss as soon as possible?

We highly recommend that anyone even mildly suspicious of hearing loss get their hearing checked. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is that catching hearing loss early can improve your quality of life sooner, and if there’s an identifiable cause of that hearing loss, it may help you prevent it from worsening (and even improve it in some cases).

However, identifying and treating hearing loss early has other advantages, as well. For example, if your hearing loss is sensorineural, then the problem lies in the inner ear.7 You might find yourself cranking the volume on your headphones, which could damage your eardrums to the point where, even if you corrected the cause of your sensorineural hearing loss, you’d have developed conductive hearing loss from overexposure to loud sounds.

For the record, an online test cannot tell the difference between conductive and sensorineural hearing loss. That’s one of the reasons why seeing an audiologist after your online hearing test is so important. They can perform additional tests to help identify the nature, and possibly the cause, of your hearing loss.

There’s also evidence to suggest that people with hearing loss are more likely to develop dementia.8 The good news is that those with hearing loss who have it treated with a hearing aid have a lower incidence of dementia — or offset its symptoms for longer — than those who don’t address their hearing loss.9

Online hearing tests are a good starting point, but they can’t fully replace an in-person visit because an online experience cannot include certain types of testing or a physical examination.10

Most audiologists and ENTs, during an in-office consultation, begin by taking a full medical history. This will include information about any preexisting health conditions, your family history, and your current lifestyle. They will also ask you (or a relative, if you bring one along) about any hearing-related difficulties you may have experienced.

Usually, they will also perform a visual examination of your ear before starting the hearing test itself. The exam may include a check of the outer ear, as well as a video otoscopy, which uses a camera to see your ear canal up close.

Next, the audiologist or ENT performs a full hearing assessment that will include speech testing, tone testing, and a bone conduction test. Online hearing tests can’t include the bone conduction portion of this testing. If testing reveals something suspicious or unexplained, the hearing professional can also refer you to a neurologist for a more thorough imaging study. After they find the cause for your hearing loss, they can explain whether it is likely to progress, how to prevent it from doing so, or even if it is partly reversible (such as with obstructive ear wax). They will also be able to recommend a specific hearing aid type or model, or work with you to find a suitable alternative.

If you have insurance and you want it to cover the assessment or hearing test, then the first thing you should do is contact your insurance company. They may be able to direct you to an in-network office close to where you live.

If this is not a concern for you, you can use the tools certain companies provide — like ReSound and Protek — to locate audiologists in your area who can provide you with those companies’ devices. You can also check out the American Academy of Audiology’s database. This page will let you search by city, state, zip code, or specialty area from among 14,000 board-certified audiology professionals around the U.S.

Hearing aid manufacturers create or host most of the best online hearing tests. This is not a red flag in and of itself. In fact, this can be a valuable source of convenience if you need a correction for your hearing. The important thing is to make sure that the test makers have invested in the necessary ways to achieve good quality.

So, how can you identify a high-quality online hearing test? Here are some important characteristics:

At their core, online hearing tests are a version of certain ones you would get at an audiologist’s office. These tests expose you to a variety of sounds to see what your ear can detect and understand. The experience will seem quite familiar to those of us who have undergone a hearing test in the doctor’s office or had one administered in a public grade school setting.

Most online hearing tests fall into one of these two categories:

• Speech and noise tests. These play real-life sounds and speech excerpts with varying degrees of background noise.11 The highest-quality tests are quite good at mimicking real-life noises, so they can test your comprehension of key details under white noise, background conversations, or street sounds.
• Pure tone test. These tests play a series of faint noises, buzzes, or hums at specific volumes and frequencies.12 You will simply need to state whether you can hear them or not. An online hearing test like these is better to identify the “hard limits” of your hearing and to track mild or early-onset hearing loss.

At an audiologist’s office, you would likely undergo similar tests followed by more specialized screening. For example, a bone conduction test could be used to determine whether your hearing loss is bilateral or unilateral and whether it’s related to your inner, middle, or outer ear.13 These tests usually entail a physical examination or specialized equipment, so they are not available online.

Online hearing tests can provide an accurate snapshot of the quality of your hearing. Any of the best online hearing tests — and certainly those that we recommend — are designed to help you discover if you may have hearing loss as well as provide information about the degree of hearing loss you’re experiencing (mild, moderate, or severe).

You may or may not realize you have some hearing loss. Either way, an online hearing test can be a very useful tool. These tests offer a convenient way to check your hearing proactively in order to keep tabs on your health and quickly identify changes.

When used properly, online tone tests are useful for people who already know they have a hearing problem but want to monitor their progress. These tests provide specific information regarding pitches and volume ranges, which helps you understand how your hearing is evolving.

Most online hearing tests begin with a short survey meant to provide some basic background information. Almost all tests begin by asking your age and assigned sex at birth, as this will affect the “normal” range they will use to evaluate you. For example, a 20-year-old may be expected to detect very high-pitched noises that a 65-year-old might not. Tests may also ask about your ability or comfort with certain situations (for example, house parties). Then, you will get a chance to test the audio setup of your computer or laptop.

If you are taking a speech and noise test, you will then hear a series of words or numbers. These usually move from easier (louder, with no background noises) to harder (with very loud static noise or confusing words). After each word or audio clip, you will be asked to identify an object or a series of numbers.

If you are taking a tone test, you will hear a series of sounds in one ear at a time. Tests usually begin with low-pitched sounds at a high volume and then end with high-pitched ones at a low volume.

After you finish the test, you will be redirected to a page showing your results, or at least informing you whether further action is needed.

Interpreting your results

Most online hearing test results are relatively easy to interpret, especially if they’re normal. If the test found something wasn’t quite right, don’t expect to see any complex charts: most will use bar graphs, star-based ratings, or simple descriptions. The best tests can provide separate results for each ear and will flag specific types of sounds that seem to be especially troublesome for you.

These online tests are only meant for screening. If you get abnormal or “inconclusive” results, you will probably need to see an audiologist in person. They will investigate the case and provide you with an adequate solution — which may include a hearing aid.

Will a hearing aid make me look old or strange?

Hearing loss may be associated with aging, but time is by no means the only culprit when your hearing fades. Hearing loss can affect anyone at any time in their life. And two things are happening concurrently that should give you confidence in getting a hearing aid.

For starters, more people are getting them.14 This could be attributed to an increased awareness about hearing loss and increased availability of over-the-counter hearing aids. And as more people get hearing aids, they’ll become more normalized. In time, we anticipate that hearing aids will be like glasses — an accessory that’s designed to improve your quality of life by maintaining the function of your senses.

The other reason you should be okay with how you'll look in a hearing aid is that the devices continue to get smaller and less conspicuous. Some models virtually disappear into your ear canal, making it nearly impossible to know you're wearing one.

Online hearing tests don’t offer the controlled, standardized environments of a professional audiology office. It’s up to you to mimic these conditions; otherwise, your results could be affected. Good tests will provide clear instructions, which you should be sure to follow.

Best overall and best to test and buy in one place

Audicus has one of the most nuanced tests of the significant number we’ve tried. While most of the pure-tone tests we took offer sliders or buttons that turn the volume of a tone up or down, Audicus starts its tones at their loudest and gradually reduces the volume until you click the button that says you couldn’t hear it. This is the data point at which most other tests stop.

But Audicus pushes through this data point, modulating the volume up fractionally to hone in on a more precise understanding of your potential hearing loss.

It works like this: Let’s say you take a simple test from another company using a slider to adjust volume. Each point on the slider increases or decreases the volume by 5 dB (actual numbers may be different). So, if you can hear the tone at 30 dB but not at 25 dB, the company knows your hearing loss is somewhere in that range.

With Audicus, if you indicate that you can hear a tone at 30 dB but not 25 dB, the test will try 26 dB. Still nothing? It’ll try 27 dB. You can hear that? Then, it’ll try 26.5 dB. By getting closer and closer to the actual point at which your hearing fails, the company can assess potential hearing loss with greater accuracy and make more informed recommendations about your next steps.

The only downside to this more-involved process is that it takes more time. Most other tests take about 3-5 minutes to complete, but Audicus is closer to 5-10 minutes. Here’s a look at what you can expect from your results:

While it’s not as useful as an audiogram would be, the fact that you can see which frequency ranges present the most potential problem for you is a very helpful data point to bring to an audiologist.

One thing we found a little untoward about Audicus is that the company makes sales calls to you shortly after you complete your testing. Our testers got calls typically between five and 24 hours after testing. In one instance, the caller had their television on at a very high volume in the background. We don’t know if this was intended to make it harder for us to hear and convince us we needed a hearing aid, or if it was a one-off event. None of the other calls we received from Audicus had such a thing.

It’s worth noting that MDHearing puts you in control of your communications, allowing you to schedule a call at your convenience to go over your results. And these calls are with actual medical professionals, not salespeople.

Best to test and buy on a budget

The first and most important thing we can say about MDHearing is that the company’s test actually provides you with an audiogram as part of your results. The data points its test gathers aren’t as sophisticated as those you get from Audicus, but as a starting point for an audiologist, the audiogram is something they can look at and understand instantly.

The test from MDHearing is fast and extremely intuitive. You just click “volume up” or “volume down” on a given frequency in either ear until it’s at the lowest point you can hear. The fastest way to do that is to click the down button until the audio signal is as low as it can get and then click up until you begin to hear something. With that technique, you can finish this test in about two minutes.

Your results will look like this:

These are useful enough for people hoping to find out whether they need further screening. But if you scroll down, you’ll see the audiogram of your results (pictured above in our evaluation section). This is something you could actually take to an audiologist to start a conversation with real data. MDHearing is the only company whose test we recommend that provides you with an audiogram.

After you test with MDHearing, you can set up a consultation with one of the company’s specialists. These are either audiologists or board-certified hearing instrument specialists. Time slots were available the next day for each of our testers, and the people we spoke to patiently walked us through our audiograms and made appropriate suggestions. There was nothing salesy about the experience.

And, while Audicus' test is a little superior in its sensitivity, there's no denying that MDHearing has them beat in the consultation department. When you hear back from Audicus, you'll speak with product account managers and salespeople. We double-checked some of the credentials of the people contacting us from Audicus and found that most have degrees in business or related fields — not medicine.

If you end up purchasing a hearing aid through MDHearing, you’ll find some of the lowest prices around for aids that offer plenty of features and good build quality. Their warranties aren’t as long as the aids from Audicus (one year compared to two), but you will get lifetime tech support and future consultations with hearing professionals.

Best to test and find a local audiologist, and best for those with tinnitus

ReSound's hearing test is what’s called a speech test. It doesn’t produce tones at specific frequencies and volumes. Instead, it plays a series of words or numbers against background noise of varying volume, and you have to match what’s said to corresponding images or numbers. We’ve taken several such tests that employ white noise as the background sound, but this test uses audio that sounds like it was captured from a busy train terminal, with people talking and moving throughout the space.

The biggest drawback to this test is that there’s only an English version. Nothing in Spanish or any other language. If you aren’t familiar with the vocabulary needed to identify the test’s spoken words, you won’t get an accurate result.

Here’s what results from ReSound look like:

These are the least informative results among the companies in our guide. On the one hand, that’s pretty frustrating. The test produces data points, and our testers love data. We wanted to see them. On the other hand, the limitations of these tests are undeniable, and less comprehensive results might lead you to seek an audiologist for further information, especially if your results indicate hearing loss.

To that end, ReSound has an excellent tool for connecting you with local audiologists. And the company’s products are available through more hearing specialists than some others. Phonek, for example, is a test with a similar tool for finding a doctor, but its results are severely disappointing. Some testers would have needed to take an entire day off from work to visit the closest specialist. ReSound’s network is much denser, meaning you’ll probably have an easier time finding a professional nearby.

If you have tinnitus, which is often accompanied by hearing loss, ReSound is a good partner because its hearing aid options include sophisticated tinnitus therapy features.15 These features can reduce the intensity of your tinnitus by masking it with other sounds. The company’s excellent smartphone app also has several guided meditations and other techniques to help manage and cope with tinnitus symptoms.