Free Online Chromatic Tuner

A chromatic tuner recognises all twelve notes of the chromatic scale instead of a fixed set of strings. You play any note and it tells you which of the twelve you are nearest to and by how many cents you missed it, so the same tuner works for every instrument and every tuning.

A guitar tuner is normally set to six specific pitches and snaps whatever it hears to the nearest one of them, which is convenient but hides mistakes: tune the low E a whole tone flat and a strict guitar preset may still show E. A chromatic tuner names what you actually played, so a low E tuned down to D reads as D.

It reads to within about one cent under normal conditions, which is finer than the ear can reliably hear on a single note. Accuracy depends mostly on your microphone and the room: a quiet space, the instrument close to the mic and a clean single note give a steady reading.

A cent is one hundredth of a semitone, so there are 1200 cents in an octave. Plus five cents means you are five hundredths of a semitone sharp. Most players treat anything inside about three cents as in tune; beyond ten cents the difference is clearly audible against another instrument.

No. The tuner runs in the browser using the Web Audio API and your device microphone — there is nothing to download, nothing to install and no account to create. Allow microphone access when the browser asks and it starts listening. It works the same on desktop and mobile browsers over HTTPS.

No. Pitch detection happens on your own device. The microphone stream is analysed in the page and discarded; nothing is recorded, stored or uploaded.

A4 = 440 Hz is the modern standard, but many orchestras tune to 442 or 443 Hz, historically informed ensembles often use 415 Hz, and some recordings sit slightly off concert pitch. Setting the reference to match moves all twelve targets together so you tune to the ensemble rather than to the standard.

You can check individual notes and it is fine for spotting how far a piano has drifted, but tuning a whole piano needs octave stretching, unison work and the right tools. Use the tuner to decide whether to call a technician, not to replace one.

Usually because the detector is hearing more than one pitch: a strummed chord, background noise, or another instrument in the room. Play a single note, get close to the microphone, and turn off anything else making sound. Very low notes also take longer to settle, so give them a moment.