How to use the white noise generator
- Press the play button (or the space bar). White noise fades in over a second so it never startles you.
- Not quite right? Tap another color. Pink is softer, brown is deeper. You can play several at once and set each one’s level with its own slider.
- Add nature sounds such as rain, ocean waves or a fan on top, or tap a quick mix like Deep sleep or Focus.
- Use Tone to make the whole sound darker or brighter, and turn on Gentle swell if you like a slow rise and fall, like breathing or distant surf.
- Pick a sleep timer. The sound fades out gently over the last minute or so instead of cutting off.
- Going to bed with your phone? Turn on Keep screen on, or download the mix as a seamless loop and play it from your music app.
Everything you change is saved in your browser, so the next visit starts where you left off. Share mix creates a link that opens your exact settings on any device.
What is white noise?
White noise is a random signal that has the same power at every frequency, from the lowest bass to the highest treble. The name comes from white light, which mixes every visible color. To the ear it sounds like a steady hiss: an untuned radio, an air vent, or a TV between channels.
It sounds brighter than you might expect because hearing works in octaves. Each octave up contains twice as many frequencies as the one below it, so equal power per frequency means the treble octaves carry far more total energy. That is why white noise is crisp, and why softer “colors” such as pink and brown noise exist: they turn the high frequencies down.
The hiss is useful because it is featureless. A sudden sound, such as a door, a dog or a snore, wakes you mainly because it stands out against silence. A steady bed of noise raises the background level, so the same sound is a smaller change and the brain is less likely to react. This is called sound masking.
White, pink, brown and the other colors of noise
The colors describe how power is spread across the frequencies. Every one of them is available in the player above, and each has its own page with more detail.
| Color | Spectrum | Sounds like | Often used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| White | Flat: equal power per frequency | Bright hiss, radio static | Masking speech and sharp noises, babies |
| Pink | Falls 3 dB per octave | Steady rain, rustling leaves | Sleep, a softer all-round mask |
| Brown | Falls 6 dB per octave | Waterfall, distant thunder, airplane cabin | Sleep, focus, low rumbling noise |
| Grey | Shaped to equal loudness | Balanced, neither hissy nor boomy | Tinnitus comfort, sensitive ears |
| Green | Centered around 500 Hz | Forest ambience, distant surf | Relaxation, a natural mid-range tone |
| Blue | Rises 3 dB per octave | Sharp hiss, spray | Masking high-pitched sounds |
| Violet | Rises 6 dB per octave | Very high, thin hiss | High-pitched tinnitus masking |
Read more on brown noise, pink noise, green noise, grey noise, blue noise and violet noise, or the full explainer on the colors of noise.
Why a live generator beats a looped recording
Most white noise websites and videos play a recording a few minutes long on repeat. Listen for long enough and you start to notice the loop: a faint click, or a pattern that comes back every few minutes. Once you notice it, it is hard to stop hearing it, which is the opposite of what you want at 2 a.m.
This generator does not play recordings. Every sample is calculated on your device the moment it is heard, by the same mathematics audio engineers use to make test noise. Nothing repeats, there are no compression artifacts, and the sound costs no data after the page has loaded. The rain, ocean, wind, fire and fan sounds are synthesized the same way, with random drops, gusts and waves, so each night sounds slightly different.
The line across the player is a live spectrum analyzer. Low pitches are on the left and high on the right, so you can see white noise sit flat and brown noise slope down. Before you press play it shows the shape of what you have selected.
Does white noise help you sleep?
For many people, yes, mainly by covering up the sounds that would otherwise wake them. In a 2017 study published in Frontiers in Neurology, Messineo and colleagues found that broadband noise cut the time it took healthy adults to fall asleep by 38 percent in a noisy, insomnia-like setting. An older and much-cited study, Spencer and colleagues in Archives of Disease in Childhood (1990), found that 80 percent of newborns fell asleep within five minutes with white noise, against 25 percent without it.
The evidence is not all one way. A 2021 systematic review in Sleep Medicine Reviews (Riedy and colleagues) judged the overall quality of research on noise as a sleep aid to be low, and called for better studies. A fair summary: noise is a cheap, low-risk tool that helps many people, especially in noisy places, but it is not a cure for insomnia. Our guide on white, pink or brown noise for sleep goes into which color to choose.
Keep the volume comfortable
Noise works at surprisingly low volumes. Aim for the level of a soft shower in the next room, just loud enough to blur the sounds you want to cover. If you have to raise your voice to talk over it, it is too loud for all-night use. For babies, keep the speaker well away from the crib and the volume low; our safety guide explains why, and how loud white noise should be gives practical decibel targets.
What you get, free
- Seven noise colors and eight nature and ambience sounds, all mixable, each with its own volume.
- A sleep timer from 15 minutes to 8 hours with a slow fade-out.
- Tone control, a gentle swell mode, and a keep-screen-on switch for phones.
- Downloads: save any mix as a 1, 5 or 10 minute WAV file that loops with no gap.
- Share links, keyboard control (space to play or pause) and lock-screen controls on supported phones.
- No account, no app to install, and nothing you do is uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
Is this white noise generator really free?
Yes. Every sound, the sleep timer and the downloads are free with no account. The site is supported by advertising, which never interrupts the sound.
Will it keep playing with my screen off?
On computers and most Android phones, yes. iPhones usually pause browser audio when the screen locks. On an iPhone either turn on Keep screen on and dim the display, or download the mix as a loop and play it from the Files or Music app, which keeps playing when locked.
Can I download white noise as an audio file?
Yes. Open Download under the player and choose 1, 5 or 10 minutes. The file is a WAV made on your device, and its end flows seamlessly into its start, so on repeat it plays forever without a gap or click.
Is it bad to sleep with white noise every night?
For most adults there is no evidence of harm at a sensible volume, and many people use it for years. Keep it quiet, use a timer if you prefer silence later in the night, and keep it well away from a baby’s crib. If you rely on it and travel, a phone with a downloaded loop solves that.
Is white noise or brown noise better?
Neither is better in general. White noise masks sharp, high sounds such as voices best, while brown noise is deeper and many people find it more relaxing for sleep and focus. Try each for a few minutes at the same volume and keep whichever you notice least.
Does it use mobile data?
Only to load the page. The sound itself is generated on your device, so an hour of noise uses no more data than a minute.