Hold your phone up and get an instant dB reading. See how long you can safely stay before the damage starts. Uses your microphone locally. Nothing is recorded or sent anywhere.
Your ears are remarkably bad judges of their own safety. A sound can feel tolerable and even comfortable while delivering enough energy to cause permanent damage over time. That is because hearing loss from noise is cumulative and painless right up until it isn't. By the time you notice it, the damage is already done.
Sound is measured in decibels (dB), a logarithmic scale. Meaning the numbers are deceptively small. Every 3 dB increase doubles the acoustic energy reaching your ears. The jump from a busy office at 65 dB to a lawnmower at 85 dB isn't a modest 30% louder; it represents 100 times more energy. The same logic runs in reverse: small reductions in volume or short breaks buy your ears a disproportionate amount of recovery time.
This tool uses your device's microphone and the Web Audio API to calculate a continuous RMS (root mean square) level. The standard method for measuring perceived loudness. And then maps it against NIOSH exposure limits. Your safe time remaining shrinks in real time as the average level climbs. Nothing is recorded or transmitted. The audio never leaves your device.
Close enough to be genuinely useful, though not a calibrated instrument. Consumer microphones vary in sensitivity and frequency response, so the absolute number may be off by a few dB compared to a professional sound level meter. What the tool does well is track relative changes accurately and flag when you are in a range that warrants caution. If you are making a formal noise assessment for a workplace, use a calibrated meter. For everyday awareness in concerts, commutes, and open-plan offices, this is more than good enough.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) sets the most widely cited hearing protection guidelines: 85 dB as the maximum safe level for an 8-hour day, with the allowable exposure time halving for every 3 dB increase above that. This is stricter than the OSHA standard (which uses 90 dB and a 5 dB exchange rate) and is considered more protective of long-term hearing health. We use NIOSH because it better reflects cumulative real-world exposure, the kind that happens in restaurants, at gigs, and through headphones, not just industrial workplaces.
Yes, and this is one of the most underappreciated risks. Most smartphones cap output at around 100 to 110 dB at full volume, which allows fewer than 15 minutes of safe exposure per day. The danger is compounded by duration: people wear headphones for hours at a stretch, often turning the volume up to compete with background noise rather than using noise-cancelling. The 60/60 rule is a sensible default: keep volume below 60% of maximum and limit continuous listening to 60-minute sessions. Noise-cancelling headphones let you hear clearly at lower volumes, making them the better long-term choice.
Because the decibel scale is logarithmic. Each 3 dB step represents a doubling of acoustic energy, and the NIOSH exchange rate reflects that directly: safe exposure time halves with every 3 dB increase. At 85 dB you have 8 hours. At 88 dB, 4 hours. At 100 dB, just 15 minutes. At 115 dB, which is roughly the front row of a loud gig, you have under a minute. The numbers look modest on the scale but the underlying energy differences are enormous, which is why damage can happen faster than it feels like it should.
In most cases, yes. The hair cells in your cochlea that convert sound vibrations into nerve signals do not regenerate once damaged. Temporary threshold shift, the muffled hearing and ringing after a loud event, is a warning sign that those cells were stressed. Repeat the stress often enough and the damage becomes permanent. Tinnitus (persistent ringing) is frequently the first lasting symptom and currently has no cure. The good news is that noise-induced hearing loss is almost entirely preventable: distance, duration, and protection are the three levers, and this tool helps you manage all three.