White noise generator
Steady, even hiss for covering speech and sudden sounds. Generated live — no loop, no download.
White noise
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Press play. Nothing downloads — the sound is generated in your browser.
A free browser white noise generator. White noise has equal power at every frequency, which makes it the most effective of the three noise colours at masking speech and sharp intermittent sounds. This player synthesises it in real time with the Web Audio API rather than looping a recording.
What white noise is
White noise is defined by its spectrum: equal power at every frequency, from the lowest audible rumble to the highest hiss. The name is borrowed from white light, which contains every visible wavelength at once.
That definition has a consequence people often find surprising. Equal power per hertz is not the same as equal power per octave. The octave from 100 Hz to 200 Hz is 100 Hz wide; the octave from 5,000 Hz to 10,000 Hz is 5,000 Hz wide and therefore holds fifty times as much of a flat spectrum. Energy per octave climbs by about 3 dB each step up the scale. This is why white noise, despite being the “neutral” one on paper, is the brightest and most obviously hissy of the three to listen to.
What it is good at
White noise is the best masker of the three colours, and masking is where its value is least debatable.
Speech is the classic case. Conversation carries most of its intelligibility between roughly 250 Hz and 6 kHz, and white noise has ample energy right across that band. Raising the background level in that range is what makes a nearby conversation stop resolving into words — you still hear that someone is talking, but your attention stops being pulled into what they are saying.
The same applies to sharp, intermittent sounds: a door, a keyboard, a dog, a notification in the next room. What makes those disruptive is the contrast between the sound and the quiet around it, not their loudness. Filling in the quiet removes the contrast.
Where it falls short
Two limitations are worth knowing before you settle on white.
Over long sessions, the high-frequency emphasis can become tiring. If you have had white noise on for an hour and feel vaguely worn down by it, that is the usual cause — and the fix is to move to pink noise, which carries the same total energy but spreads it evenly across octaves.
It is also the wrong tool for low-frequency intrusion. Traffic rumble, a neighbour’s bass, a compressor cycling on — those live at the bottom of the range, where white noise is comparatively thin. Brown noise concentrates its energy exactly there and masks them far better.
How this generator makes it
The white noise here is a fresh uniformly random sample, in the range −1 to 1, generated for every one of the 44,100 samples your browser plays each second.
That is the entire algorithm, and it is the same code path the Android app uses. Because each sample is drawn independently there is no state, no cycle, and no pattern that could ever recur — which is the practical difference between a generator and a looping recording. Recordings repeat, and once you have heard the seam you will keep hearing it.
White, pink, or brown
If you are switching between them, the short version: white for masking speech and sudden noise, pink for long comfortable sessions and sleep, brown for deep rumble and low-frequency neighbours. Use the swatches under the button to compare them against whatever you are actually trying to block out — that comparison is worth more than any description.
Which noise should you use?
| Noise | What it sounds like | Energy per octave | Commonly used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| White noise | A flat hiss, like an untuned radio | Rises 3 dB per octave | Masking speech and sudden noises |
| Pink noise | Softer hiss, like steady rain | Flat across octaves | Sleeping and long listening sessions |
| Brown noise | A deep rumble, like distant surf | Falls 3 dB per octave | Blocking low-frequency noise and focus |
Take it offline
The same noise, on Android
One button, background playback, lock screen controls, and a home screen widget. No ads, no account, no subscription.
- Pay once, keep it forever
- No ads and no tracking inside the app
- No internet permission — it works fully offline
- Keeps playing when the screen is off
- Home screen widget and lock screen controls
- Plays on Wear OS watches on their own
One-time purchase, about $0.20. Price varies by country.
Questions
What is white noise?
White noise is a sound containing equal power at every frequency across the audible range. Because each octave spans twice the bandwidth of the one below it, that flat spectrum places steadily more energy in the higher octaves, which is why white noise sounds bright and hissy rather than neutral.
What does white noise sound like?
An even, unchanging hiss — an untuned analogue radio, a fan at a distance, or air escaping steadily. It has no rhythm, no pitch, and no discernible pattern, which is exactly what makes it useful as a background.
Is white noise good for sleep?
It can be, though people who compare the three colours often prefer pink or brown overnight because white noise puts more energy in the high frequencies and can feel tiring over hours. The research on noise and sleep is small and inconsistent. Try it at a low volume and switch to pink or brown if it feels harsh.
Does white noise block out talking?
Better than pink or brown noise, yes. Human speech sits mostly between roughly 250 Hz and 6 kHz, and white noise carries plenty of energy across that whole range, so it raises the background level where speech lives. This is why office sound-masking systems use noise shaped closer to white than to brown.
Is this white noise generator really free?
Yes — no account, no sign-up, no time limit, and no ads. The Android app is a separate one-time purchase of about 20 cents.
Can I use this white noise offline?
Yes, after your first visit. The page caches itself and the sound is generated on your device rather than streamed, so it keeps working with no connection. For guaranteed offline use with the screen off, the Android app is the more reliable option.