Guitar tuner. Pitch, heard on your device.

How to use the Guitar Tuner

This tuner listens through your microphone and shows the note you play, its frequency in Hz and how far it is sharp or flat in cents. It finds the pitch with autocorrelation and compares it with the nearest equal temperament note for your A4 setting. Presets cover standard guitar, Drop D, bass, ukulele and violin, and chromatic mode accepts any note.

Step by step

1. 1
   Turn on the microphone

   Press Enable microphone and allow access when your browser asks. Once it is listening you see a Live · listening badge, the gauge and a Stop microphone button. If you blocked access, allow it in your browser's site permissions and press Try again.

2. 2
   Pick your instrument

   Choose an Instrument preset. Guitar · E A D G B E is selected by default; the others are Guitar Drop D, Ukulele, Bass, Violin and Chromatic (any note). The target strings appear below the menu with the frequency each one should read.

3. 3
   Check the reference pitch

   Leave A4 calibration at 440 Hz unless your band, orchestra or recording uses another pitch. The slider runs from 432 to 446 Hz in 1 Hz steps, and the 440 button resets it. Every target frequency moves with it.

4. 4
   Play one string at a time

   Pluck a single string and let it ring close to the microphone. The needle swings left when the note is flat and right when it is sharp, and the nearest target string lights up.

5. 5
   Tune until it turns green

   Tighten the string to raise the pitch or loosen it to lower it, until the reading says in tune and the needle sits in the green zone, within 5 cents either way. Then move on to the next string.

6. 6
   Copy or stop

   Press Copy reading to copy the last note, frequency, cents and A4 setting, for example E2, 82.4 Hz, -3 cents (A4 = 440 Hz). Press Stop microphone when you finish to release the microphone.

Reading the tuner

• The big letter is the nearest note and the small number after it is the octave, so E2 is the low E string of a guitar and E4 is the high one. At A4 = 440 Hz the guitar targets are E2 82.4, A2 110.0, D3 146.8, G3 196.0, B3 246.9 and E4 329.6 Hz.
• Cents are hundredths of a semitone. A reading of +12 cents (sharp) means the string is slightly high, and -30 cents (flat) means it is well low. The gauge runs from -50 to +50.
• The note name is always the nearest note, not the string you are aiming for. If your low E string reads D# or D, it is a semitone or more flat, so bring it up until the name changes to E before you fine tune.
• In an instrument preset, the target string closest to what you play is outlined in orange and turns green within 5 cents of its own target. In Chromatic (any note) mode every note counts as a target.

Tips and common mistakes

• Play one string and mute the others. Ringing open strings and a noisy room are the usual reasons the reading jumps around.
• Tune up to the note from below. If a string is sharp, loosen it past the target and bring it back up.
• The tuner reads notes from about 25 Hz to 2200 Hz, so the low E of a bass at 41.2 Hz works, but quiet low notes need the instrument close to the microphone.
• If the display drops back to its listening message, the sound was too quiet or unclear for more than about half a second. Pluck a little harder and let the string ring.

Privacy and limits

The sound is analyzed in your browser about 30 times a second. Nothing is recorded, uploaded or saved. Stop microphone releases the microphone, and so does closing the tab. The tuner needs microphone access and the Web Audio API, which current Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari provide on an https page.

Back to the tool

Everything a tuner should do.

• Tune guitar in standard or Drop D with a live needle and a running cents readout.
• Switch to bass, ukulele or violin presets to highlight the correct target strings.
• Use chromatic mode to detect any note from roughly 25 Hz to 2200 Hz.
• Calibrate A4 from 432 to 446 Hz to match an orchestra, a recording session or a period pitch.
• Read the cents offset on a visual gauge that turns green when you’re within 5 cents of pitch.
• Copy your reading, note name, Hz and cents offset, to the clipboard in one click.

Frequently asked questions.

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