Free Online Chromatic Tuner
Play a note, see exactly how in tune you are.
A simplified preview of what the Tunable app does. Get the full app
Allow microphone access to begin
How to use this tuner
Click Start Tuning and allow microphone access. Play a note, the tuner detects pitch in real time and shows how sharp or flat you are in cents.
The bar spans −50 to +50 cents. Zero is perfectly in tune. Most tuners only show where you are at this instant, the history line shows where you’ve been. This is especially useful for bowed strings, woodwinds, and brass, where pitch can drift as a note is sustained due to bow pressure, breath support, or embouchure. Plucked instruments like guitar or ukulele hold their pitch after the attack, so a snapshot is usually enough, but for players who shape a note over time, the history reveals patterns a single needle can’t.
Playing Bb clarinet, trumpet, alto sax, or French horn? Select your instrument from the dropdown, note names automatically match your written part.
Default is A440. Tap + / − to match your ensemble, A441–442 is common in orchestras, A415 for historical pitch.
A chromatic tuner picks up whatever note you play and shows how sharp or flat you are, in real time, for any instrument, no hardware required. Most tuners only show your pitch at this instant. This one shows your pitch over time, so you can see if you’re drifting mid-note, gradually improving, or holding steady. For bowed strings, woodwinds, and brass, where a note lives and breathes, that history is often the difference between good intonation and great intonation.
How a chromatic tuner works
A chromatic tuner listens to whatever you play and names the nearest of the twelve semitones, instead of expecting one of six guitar strings or four violin strings. That is the whole difference between a chromatic tuner and an instrument-specific one: nothing is assumed about what note is coming.
When you press Start Tuning, the page asks your browser for the microphone, then reads short slices of audio, a few dozen milliseconds at a time, and estimates the fundamental frequency of each slice. It compares that frequency against the equal-tempered scale built from your reference A (440 Hz by default) and reports two things: the closest note name, and how far off you are from it. The Hz readout next to the note is the raw measured frequency, so you can see, for example, that a note reading A4 at 443 Hz is a real three-hertz sharpness rather than a rounding artifact.
Pitch detection works best on a sustained, reasonably loud, single note. Chords confuse every chromatic tuner, including this one, the detector has to pick one fundamental and will jump between the notes it hears. Tune one string or one note at a time. Very low notes (bass, tuba, low piano) need a longer sample before the reading settles, which is what the Response slider is for: slide toward Slow for a steadier number on low or noisy sources, toward Fast when you want the display to track a note as it changes.
Reading cents and the ±50 indicator
A cent is one hundredth of a semitone. The bar under the note readout spans −50 to +50 cents, exactly half a semitone in each direction, which is the full range in which a given note is still the nearest note. Dead center is in tune. Past ±50 the tuner simply relabels you as the next semitone up or down.
For most playing, landing inside ±5 cents is the working target, and experienced ensemble players aim for ±2. Below about 5 cents the error is smaller than the pitch variation most instruments produce naturally, so chasing zero on the display is usually a waste of practice time. Vibrato deliberately swings well past that, a singer or string player oscillating ±10 cents is doing it right, and the tuner will show the swing rather than a flaw.
The line drawn across the indicator is a pitch history graph, and it is the reason this tuner is worth more than a needle. A needle answers “am I in tune right now?” The history answers “what did this note do?” Hold a long tone and watch the trace: a line that starts high and sags is a breath-support or bow-weight problem; a line that wanders is unstable embouchure or finger pressure; a line that sits flat and centered is the thing you are actually practicing for. Plucked instruments decay too fast for this to matter much, so on guitar or ukulele the instantaneous reading is enough. For winds, brass, bowed strings, and voice, the shape of the line is the useful information.
Why transposing instruments show different note names
A B♭ trumpet playing its written C produces the pitch a concert B♭. A concert-pitch tuner, told nothing, will correctly report B♭, and the player, reading C on the page, has to translate every reading in their head. That translation is where tuning sessions go wrong, especially for students.
Selecting your instrument from the dropdown fixes this. The tuner keeps measuring the same physical frequency, but relabels it in your written key: pick Trumpet (B♭) and that same note now reads C, matching the part on your stand. The offsets are the standard ones, B♭ instruments (trumpet, clarinet, tenor sax, soprano sax) read a major second above concert, E♭ instruments (alto sax, baritone sax) a major sixth above, F instruments (French horn, English horn) a perfect fifth above, and A clarinet a minor third above. Flute, oboe, bassoon, strings, and piano are concert-pitch instruments and need no offset.
Transposition changes the name only. Being 12 cents sharp is 12 cents sharp whichever label the tuner prints, so the bar and the cents number never change when you switch instruments. If you are tuning in a mixed ensemble and want everyone talking about the same note, leave the tuner on Concert Pitch (C).
What you need: a browser and a microphone
Nothing to install, no account, no plugin. The tuner runs entirely in the page using the Web Audio API, which is supported in current Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge on both desktop and mobile. Your audio is analyzed on your device and is never uploaded or recorded.
The browser will ask for microphone permission the first time you press Start Tuning; the tuner cannot hear anything until you allow it. If you accidentally blocked it, the permission lives in the padlock or “site information” icon in the address bar, reset it there and reload. Two other things trip people up: microphone access requires a secure (HTTPS) connection, which this page uses, and iOS will hand the microphone to whichever app grabbed it last, so quit any recording or video-call app that may still be holding it. A built-in laptop or phone mic is fine. If the reading jumps around, the usual cause is room noise or another instrument nearby rather than the hardware, move closer to the mic and slow the response.
Tuning a specific instrument
The tuner above works for everything, but each instrument has its own target notes, its own transposition, and its own habits. The instrument pages linked at the top of this page open the same tuner with the right preset already selected and add notes specific to that instrument, open-string pitches, common intonation traps, and what to do about them. For the underlying technique, how to hold a steady tone while tuning, how to read cents, how reference pitch works, see the longer walkthrough in how to use a chromatic tuner.
When the Tunable app is the better tool
This page is free and deliberately narrow. The paid Tunable app exists for the work it does not cover. Three differences matter most. Temperaments: the browser tuner is equal temperament only, while the app carries 15+ historical and just-intonation temperaments, the difference between tuning a harpsichord or a barbershop chord correctly and approximating it. Saved pitch history and practice scoring: the history line here disappears when you leave the page; the app keeps it, scores how long you held pitch inside your target range, and shows the trend across sessions. Working offline: a browser page needs a connection to load, so for a rehearsal room with no signal, a pit, or a plane, an installed app is the reliable option. The app also adds a synced metronome, tone generator, ear training, recording, and vibrato analysis. If all you need is to check a note, stay here, this page will always be free.
Frequently asked questions
Is an online tuner accurate?
Yes, to within about a cent under normal conditions, finer than the pitch differences most players can produce on demand, and comparable to a clip-on or pedal tuner. The limiting factor is almost never the software but the signal: room noise, another instrument in earshot, or a very short note give the detector less to work with. Play one sustained note at a moderate volume, close to the microphone, and the reading is as trustworthy as dedicated hardware. Hardware tuners keep one real advantage, a contact or clip-on pickup senses vibration through the instrument body, so it still works on a loud stage where a microphone would hear everyone else.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. It runs in mobile Safari on iPhone and iPad and in Chrome, Firefox, and Edge on Android, using the phone’s built-in microphone. Tap Start Tuning and allow microphone access when prompted. On iOS, close any other app that is currently using the microphone, a voice memo or a video call will keep the tuner from hearing anything. You can add the page to your home screen if you want it to open like an app.
Do I need to download anything?
No. There is no download, no plugin, no sign-up, and no account. The tuner is part of this web page and starts working as soon as you allow microphone access. Audio is processed on your own device, nothing is uploaded, stored, or recorded. The paid Tunable app is a separate, optional product for people who need temperaments, saved practice history, or offline use.
Can I tune a guitar, ukulele, or violin with it?
Yes, a chromatic tuner handles any instrument that produces a pitch, so guitar, bass, ukulele, violin, viola, cello, mandolin, banjo, and harp all work, as do winds, brass, and voice. Tune one string or one note at a time rather than strumming a chord, since the detector has to pick a single fundamental. There are dedicated pages for the most common instruments, linked at the top of this page, which open the tuner with the correct preset and list the target notes for each string.
What is a chromatic tuner?
A chromatic tuner recognizes all twelve notes of the chromatic scale, in every octave, instead of only the handful of notes one instrument is tuned to. A guitar tuner in guitar mode expects E, A, D, G, B, or E and will snap a stray note to the nearest of those; a chromatic tuner names whatever it actually hears. That makes it the right tool for any instrument, for alternate tunings, and for checking individual notes across an instrument’s range rather than just its open strings.
Want the complete experience?
The Tunable app adds 15+ tuning temperaments, metronome, tone generator, recording, ear training, and more, all on your phone.
