How accurate is this compared to a clip-on or pedal tuner?

It resolves well under a cent on a steady note, which is finer than the ±5 cent band most clip-on tuners treat as in tune, and finer than the 1–3 cents a trained ear can pick out. The limit in practice is not the tuner: a fretted note shifts by several cents depending on how hard you press, and a hard pluck reads sharp until it settles.

What are the guitar string notes, in order?

From the thickest string to the thinnest: E, A, D, G, B, E — written E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4 with octave numbers. The thick one nearest you is the 6th string, low E; the thin one nearest the floor is the 1st, high E. Guitarists count them from the thin string up, which is why the low E is the 6th and not the 1st.

Is my microphone audio uploaded or recorded?

No. Your microphone audio is analysed in the browser as it arrives and discarded immediately. It is never recorded, never written to disk and never uploaded. Closing the tab or pressing Stop releases the microphone at once.

Can I tune an electric guitar plugged in?

Yes. Select your audio interface as the browser's input device and it works exactly the same — usually better, since there is no room noise. A clean tone reads more reliably than a heavily distorted one.

Which way do I turn the peg to tune up or down?

Tightening the string raises the pitch, loosening it lowers the pitch. If the tuner says flat you need to tighten; if it says sharp, loosen. Which physical direction that is depends on the guitar and even on which side of the headstock the peg sits, so turn slowly and watch the reading rather than memorising a direction. Always finish by tuning upward into the note — coming up to pitch leaves the string more stable than dropping down onto it.

Why does it say the string is in tune when it still sounds wrong?

Two common reasons. Intonation: if the open string is right but fretted notes are sharp, the saddle position needs adjusting, not the tuning peg. And on a guitar, equal temperament makes some chords beat slightly no matter how perfect each string is — many players tune the G string a couple of cents flat to make open chords sit better.

Which browsers does it work in?

Any current Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari, on desktop or phone. It needs microphone access and a secure connection, both of which this site has.

Can I use a tuning that is not in the list?

Yes. Any tuning can be passed in the page's address, so a custom one can be bookmarked and shared as a link that opens the tuner already set up for it.

Online guitar tuner

Press start, allow the microphone and play a string — it opens on standard guitar tuning, and it is free with no account. It names the string you are on, shows how far off you are in cents, and tells you which way to turn the peg. Bass, ukulele, violin, banjo and nine more instruments are a dropdown away, with 45 tunings between them. There is no app to install and your microphone audio is never uploaded.

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Strings

Last few seconds

Harmonics

Each bar is one overtone, and its height is how far above its ideal position it sits. A stiff, wound string climbs to the right; nylon stays flat.

Your microphone audio is never uploaded — it is analysed on your device and never recorded.

Instrument

Tuning

Reference pitchA4 = 440 Hz is standard. Baroque ensembles use 415.

What to aim at

By stringChromatic

Matches what it hears to the nearest string of the tuning.

How to tune

Pick your instrument and tuning

Guitar standard is ready to go. Change the tuning for Drop D, Open G, DADGAD or any of 45 presets across 13 instruments — or switch to chromatic and it will simply name whatever note it hears.
Allow the microphone

The browser asks once. Your microphone audio is analysed as it arrives and thrown away frame by frame — it is never recorded, never written to disk and never uploaded. Sit close to the microphone in a quiet room and play one string at a time.
Play a string and watch the strobe

The note name appears with the error in cents. Flat means tighten, sharp means loosen. The strobe ring drifts one way when you are sharp and the other when you are flat, and freezes when you land — it stays readable long after the needle has stopped moving.

What makes it accurate

No model, no download, no wait

There is no machine-learning model here, which is the stronger claim rather than a weaker one: this is signal processing, so it starts instantly, costs nothing to load and keeps working with the network off. Pitch detection has been solved in pure DSP for decades — the work is not in finding an algorithm but in the corrections below, which is where most tuners stop and this one does not.

It corrects for string stiffness, which is why it agrees with your ear

Real strings are stiff, so their overtones run progressively sharp instead of landing on exact multiples. Ordinary tuners average across those overtones and drift sharp on exactly the strings that are hardest to tune — a bright, wound low E can read 15 cents out. This one measures the overtones and solves for the true fundamental separately, then shows you the stiffness it found.

It does not get confused when two strings ring

When a second string is still sounding, the combined waveform repeats at the greatest common divisor of the two frequencies — about 27 Hz for a low E against an open A — and most tuners will confidently report that. This one re-checks each candidate against the harmonic series, which took the error rate from 97% to zero on that case.

45 tunings across 13 instruments

Guitar in standard, Drop D, Drop C, Drop B, Drop A, Open D, Open G, Open C, Open E, DADGAD, D standard, half step down and more. Seven- and eight-string guitars, four- and five-string bass, ukulele including low G and baritone, violin, viola, cello, double bass, banjo including Irish tenor, mandolin, guitalele and cavaquinho.

Any reference pitch, not just 440

Play with a baroque ensemble at 415 Hz, an orchestra at 442 Hz, or anything from 410 to 470 Hz. Every target is computed from the reference rather than looked up in a table, so the whole instrument moves correctly instead of only the A.

Frequently asked questions

How accurate is this compared to a clip-on or pedal tuner?: It resolves well under a cent on a steady note, which is finer than the ±5 cent band most clip-on tuners treat as in tune, and finer than the 1–3 cents a trained ear can pick out. The limit in practice is not the tuner: a fretted note shifts by several cents depending on how hard you press, and a hard pluck reads sharp until it settles.
What are the guitar string notes, in order?: From the thickest string to the thinnest: E, A, D, G, B, E — written E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4 with octave numbers. The thick one nearest you is the 6th string, low E; the thin one nearest the floor is the 1st, high E. Guitarists count them from the thin string up, which is why the low E is the 6th and not the 1st.
Is my microphone audio uploaded or recorded?: No. Your microphone audio is analysed in the browser as it arrives and discarded immediately. It is never recorded, never written to disk and never uploaded. Closing the tab or pressing Stop releases the microphone at once.
Can I tune an electric guitar plugged in?: Yes. Select your audio interface as the browser's input device and it works exactly the same — usually better, since there is no room noise. A clean tone reads more reliably than a heavily distorted one.
Which way do I turn the peg to tune up or down?: Tightening the string raises the pitch, loosening it lowers the pitch. If the tuner says flat you need to tighten; if it says sharp, loosen. Which physical direction that is depends on the guitar and even on which side of the headstock the peg sits, so turn slowly and watch the reading rather than memorising a direction. Always finish by tuning upward into the note — coming up to pitch leaves the string more stable than dropping down onto it.
Why does it say the string is in tune when it still sounds wrong?: Two common reasons. Intonation: if the open string is right but fretted notes are sharp, the saddle position needs adjusting, not the tuning peg. And on a guitar, equal temperament makes some chords beat slightly no matter how perfect each string is — many players tune the G string a couple of cents flat to make open chords sit better.
Which browsers does it work in?: Any current Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari, on desktop or phone. It needs microphone access and a secure connection, both of which this site has.
Can I use a tuning that is not in the list?: Yes. Any tuning can be passed in the page's address, so a custom one can be bookmarked and shared as a link that opens the tuner already set up for it.

Tuning guides

What each tuning is for, which strings move, and what it does to the shapes under your fingers — each one opens the tuner already set to it.

How to tune

Pick your instrument and tuning

Allow the microphone

Play a string and watch the strobe