Free Online Player
Pink Noise
Pink noise sounds like steady rain or wind in trees: fuller than a hiss, lighter than a rumble. Press play and the generator starts in this browser, free, with no account and nothing to download. It's the usual middle choice when white noise feels too sharp for sleep or study and brown noise feels empty on a phone speaker.
Ready to play
Put this under rain or a fire, keep the blend you end up with, and play it through the night with your screen off. The Slo app does that on iOS, Android and Mac.
What is pink noise?
People compare it to rain, wind in trees, or distant surf: a full, steady wash with less hiss than white noise and less rumble than brown. It isn't a weather recording, so it won't put you in a forest. If you catch yourself listening to the texture, it's too loud or it's the wrong color for the room.
Reach for it when the room is mixed: a bit of speech, a bit of plumbing, a distant car. It blurs those better than brown noise does, without the radio-static edge of white. It's still a weak cover for a shouting neighbor or bass through the floor. Brown noise is the deep rumble for that; white is the hiss if voices are the whole problem.
Pink noise for sleep and study
At bedtime the even wash can soften pipes, hallway movement, or cars you can't do anything about. A steady sound is easier to ignore than a playlist that keeps changing. Research on pink noise and sleep uses methods that have little to do with pressing play on a webpage, so treat this as a calmer room rather than therapy, and don't expect it to deliver a particular sleep stage. Insomnia that keeps up needs a clinician.
At a desk it can make nearby talk harder to follow without the fatigue of a bright hiss. It's working when it disappears behind the page. People who notice tinnitus sometimes prefer a quiet, even sound in the room; a new, one-sided, or pulsing sound still needs a hearing professional, not a louder slider.
Volume, speakers, and layers
Start at the quietest setting that makes interruptions less obvious. More volume is not more sleep, especially overnight. Put the speaker across the room, not next to your ear. Phone speakers handle pink better than brown, because there's less deep rumble to lose, but they can still make it hissier than it sounds on headphones.
Use the 15, 30, or 60 minute timer for a short wind-down, or the all-night setting if silence later would wake you. Nothing here asks you to download anything, and if you'd rather have a sound machine on your phone than a browser tab, the Slo app is on the App Store and Google Play. In the free mixer, put pink noise under ocean waves or a river at a lower level if you want movement on top. The brown, white, and pink noise comparison is the place to match loudness and pick by ear.
Presets built on pink noise
Each one opens with the volumes and the timer already set for a single job, so you can press play and leave it alone.
- Pink Noise for Sleep Pink noise on its own, volume at half, timer set until morning.
Frequently asked questions
What does pink noise sound like?
It sounds like a full, steady wash, closer to rain or broad wind than to radio static. There is less hiss in it than in white noise and less deep rumble than in brown.
Is pink noise better than white noise for sleeping?
There is no universal winner. Pink is usually easier overnight, and white hides voices a bit better. Use the quietest level of whichever one you stop noticing.
Does pink noise improve deep sleep?
Some lab work uses carefully timed pulses, which is not what a continuous player does. It may make the room steadier, and that is as much as you should expect; it is not a treatment for insomnia.
Can I use pink noise while studying?
Yes, if it reduces distraction without becoming the thing you listen to. Keep it behind the work, especially if you are reading or writing.