Free binaural beats generator: hear your first beat right now.
Real-time stereo synthesis in your browser — five presets, any frequency you like, no signup. Put on stereo headphones and press play. Sessions here run to twenty minutes.
What this trace can and cannot show
A live trace of both channels summed, about 45 milliseconds at a time — while stopped it previews what your current settings will produce. Note what it cannot show you: in binaural mode each ear receives one steady tone and the beat is reconstructed in your brainstem, so it is something you hear rather than something a waveform contains. In isochronic mode the pulsing is real and visible here.
Two tones, one per ear. Stereo headphones required — on speakers the two tones mix in the air and the effect is gone.
Move either slider to leave the presets and dial in your own. For binaural beats the carrier barely matters — the beat is what does the work — though the illusion is clearest with a carrier under about 1000 Hz, which is why the slider stops there.
Audio fades out over the last few seconds rather than cutting off.
A noise layer masks the room around you without covering the tone. Same generators as the noise colour pages.
Space play/pause · ↑↓ volume · M mute · 1–5 presets
That’s 20 minutes.
Browser sessions cap at twenty minutes so this page stays free for everyone. The app runs as long as you like, works offline, and remembers your sessions across devices.
Which frequency should I pick?
Start with the goal, not the number. Slower beats suit winding down, faster beats suit staying alert: roughly 2 Hz for sleep, 6 Hz for meditation, 10 Hz for relaxed study, 18–20 Hz for deep work, 40 Hz for short bursts of demanding thinking. The five presets above are already set to those values, so you can just press one.
The number you set is the beat frequency — the difference between the two tones, not the tones themselves. A 200 Hz tone in your left ear and a 210 Hz tone in your right produce a 10 Hz beat. That difference is what the presets change; the carrier is the pitch you actually hear, and it matters mostly for comfort.
| Band | Beat used here | Commonly used for | Play it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delta 0.5–4 Hz | 2 Hz | Falling asleep, night waking, deep rest | Delta, 2 Hz → |
| Theta 4–8 Hz | 6 Hz | Meditation, winding down, naps | Theta, 6 Hz → |
| Alpha 8–12 Hz | 10 Hz | Calm-but-awake reading, studying, coding | Alpha, 10 Hz → |
| Beta 12–30 Hz | 18 Hz | Sustained deep work, alert task blocks | Beta, 18 Hz → |
| Gamma 30 Hz+ | 40 Hz | Short, demanding cognitive bursts | Gamma, 40 Hz → |
Those bands describe EEG activity that neuroscience has measured for decades. Whether listening to a matching beat reliably shifts your own brain into that band is a separate and much weaker claim — the trials are small and the results are mixed. We keep the honest version, including the null findings, in the research hub. Treat the table as a starting point, not a prescription, and change it if something else feels better.
How do I use this in sixty seconds?
Headphones on, pick a preset, press play, set the volume low, leave it alone. The beat is a background signal, not something to concentrate on. Ten to twenty minutes is a normal session length — that is also roughly the range most published studies used.
- Put on stereo headphones. Any wired or wireless pair works, as long as left and right are separate. Check they are the right way round with the channel test above.
- Pick a preset that matches your goal, using the table in § 01. If you are not sure, alpha at 10 Hz is the safest first try.
- Press play and set the volume low — quiet enough that the tone sits under your thoughts rather than over them. Louder is not stronger.
- Do the thing you actually wanted to do. Read, work, breathe, lie down. Listening to the beat defeats the point.
- Give it ten to twenty minutes. The session here fades out and stops at twenty; if nothing has changed by then, that is useful information too.
Optional extras on this page: a noise bed (white, pink or brown) to mask a noisy room, a session length of 5, 10 or 20 minutes, and custom carrier and beat sliders if you want to leave the presets behind. Nothing you set is uploaded — it lives in your browser, and Copy link to this session turns it into a URL you can keep.
Do I really need headphones?
For binaural mode, yes — there is no way around it. A binaural beat only exists because each ear receives a different tone and your brainstem compares them. On a speaker the two tones mix in the air first, so what reaches you is an ordinary wobble, not a binaural beat. The other two modes on this page work fine on speakers.
| Mode | How it makes the rhythm | Headphones | Play it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binaural | Two slightly different tones, one per ear; the beat is produced by your auditory system | Required | Binaural, 10 Hz → |
| Isochronic | One tone switched on and off in a steady pulse; the rhythm is in the air already | Not needed | Isochronic, 10 Hz → |
| Pure tone | A single steady frequency with no beat at all | Not needed | Pure tone, 432 Hz → |
Expensive headphones are not the point — channel separation is. The tones used here sit between 60 and 1000 Hz, which almost any pair reproduces cleanly. If you want the longer version, we wrote up what to look for in headphones and what actually works when you have none. Noise-cancelling is fine; bone-conduction and single-ear earpieces are not, because they break the left/right separation the effect depends on.
What does this free tool do — and what does it not?
It synthesises real tones live, in your browser, for up to twenty minutes, with no account. It is not a treatment, it does not diagnose anything, and it is not a substitute for care from a clinician. The 44-preset library, the 34 ambient beds, offline playback and unlimited sessions are in the mobile app, not on this page.
| This free web tool | The mobile app | |
|---|---|---|
| Session length | Up to 20 minutes | Unlimited |
| Presets | 5 brainwave bands | 44 named protocols |
| Tone modes | Binaural, isochronic, pure | Same, plus the 8-tool Frequency Lab |
| Ambient sound | White, pink, brown noise | 34 beds across 7 categories |
| Synthesis | Your device’s own sample rate | 48 kHz |
| Works offline | No | Yes |
| Account | None | None |
On the evidence: the largest pooled analysis to date, Garcia-Argibay and colleagues (2019), combined 22 studies and found a small-to-moderate effect on state anxiety — how anxious someone feels in the moment. That is the strongest single result in this literature, and it is a modest one. Effects on attention, memory and sleep are studied in smaller trials with inconsistent findings, and several well-run studies found nothing at all. Binaural beats are a complementary wellness tool. For anxiety, insomnia or low mood that is affecting your life, talking therapies such as CBT and a conversation with a doctor are the first-line options, and nothing on this page should replace prescribed treatment.
Things people reasonably ask.
Is this generator really free?
Why does it stop after twenty minutes?
Do I need headphones?
What carrier frequency should I use?
Nothing is happening. Is it broken?
Can I listen while I sleep?
Are binaural beats safe?
What is the difference between binaural and isochronic tones?
Do binaural beats actually work?
Can I save or share a session?
Want the unlimited version?
The mobile app adds 44 expert-tuned presets, 34 ambient sound beds, progressive wake-up alarms, offline synthesis, and unlimited session length. Free. Not sure which to use? Read the full web vs mobile app comparison — it covers the five presets here against the 44-preset app library, feature by feature.
Evidence-led
Every claim traced to a named study in the research hub — including the null results.
Real-time synthesis
Generated live in your browser at your device’s native sample rate — not pre-recorded MP3 loops.
No account needed
Nothing to sign up for. Audio is synthesised on your device and your session history never leaves it. This page does run ads and analytics — see the privacy policy.
Works offline
The full app runs with zero internet after download. Airplane-ready.