This voicecel test for women measures your median speaking pitch in Hz and compares it with adult women. That matters because the original voicecel meme scale was built for male voices. On that scale almost every woman lands in the voicecel band, which tells you nothing about your voice. Here you get a fair comparison: where your pitch sits among women, and how deep your voice is for a woman.
Why the original voicecel test does not work for women
The meme scale draws its main line at 130 Hz, with a top band from 155 Hz. Adult women speak far higher than that on average. The Sydney Voice Lab's 2025 reference sheet puts the average woman's conversational pitch at 199 Hz, with a standard deviation of 28 Hz.
If women's pitch follows a bell curve around those figures, about 99% of adult women speak above 130 Hz and about 94% speak above 155 Hz. The meme scale would put nearly every woman in its highest band. That shows the scale was never meant for female voices. It says nothing about yours.
The gap comes from anatomy. During male puberty, rising testosterone makes the vocal folds longer and thicker, and adult men's folds end up about 60% longer than women's. Longer folds vibrate more slowly, which means a lower pitch. A study of Australian English speakers aged 18 to 60 found women's speaking pitch about 76 Hz higher than men's after accounting for age.
How the voicecel test for women works
Choose "women" with the toggle and the test compares you with adult women. The bands are cut at the 10th, 30th, 70th and 90th percentiles:
| Band | Median pitch | Where it sits among adult women |
|---|---|---|
| Very low | under 163 Hz | lowest 10% |
| Low | 163 to 184 Hz | 10th to 30th percentile |
| Average | 184 to 214 Hz | middle 40% |
| High | 214 to 235 Hz | 70th to 90th percentile |
| Very high | above 235 Hz | highest 10% |
Your result also shows "deeper than X% of adult women" and a deep voice score from 0 to 100, which is the share of adult women who speak higher than you. A score of 80 means 80% of women speak higher than you do.
How deep is my voice for a woman?
Here are worked examples using the same norms:
| Your median pitch | Women who speak higher | Deep voice tier |
|---|---|---|
| 160 Hz | about 92% | very deep |
| 175 Hz | about 80% | deep |
| 199 Hz | 50% | average |
| 220 Hz | about 23% | light |
| 240 Hz | about 7% | high |
Every band is common. Two women in ten land in the low band, two in ten in the high band and one in ten in each outer band. If you want the same score in a format built around depth, the deep voice test shows it for both men and women.
Norms differ, especially with age
Not every study agrees on the female average. A German population study of 2,472 adults aged 40 to 79 found women averaging about 169 Hz in conversation, and its authors noted that this was six to seven semitones lower than earlier published values. The same study found that pitch rose with age in men but did not change significantly with age in women.
So if you are over 40 and read "low" here, you may be right in line with women in that study. Our bands use the Sydney figures, so treat your band as a rough position rather than an exact rank. Our guide to average voice pitch compares the main norms side by side.
What your reading does not say
Pitch is one part of how a voice sounds, and research on how listeners rate female voices is mixed. One study found that men preferred female voices with higher pitch and a breathier quality. A Penn State study found that women's vocal pitch did not predict how attractive men rated them. Either way, these are averages across groups of listeners, not a judgment of any one voice.
If you are trans or nonbinary, you can pick either comparison group with the toggle, or check both. This test reads pitch only. How masculine or feminine a voice sounds also depends on resonance, the quality shaped by the length of your vocal tract, which this test does not measure. A gender-affirming voice teacher or speech-language pathologist can help if you are training your voice.
Tips for a clean reading
- Use a quiet room and keep the microphone at the same distance.
- Read at your normal conversational volume. Louder speech reads higher.
- Use the voice you talk with every day, not a performance voice.
- Take two or three readings and go by the typical one.
Private, free and independent
All analysis happens in your browser. Your recording is never uploaded, stored or sent anywhere, and there is no sign-up. The test is meant for people 13 and older.
Want the meme version for comparison? The standard voicecel test shows the original Hz lines. To learn where the word came from, read what is a voicecel, and to see how much to trust any pitch test, read is the voicecel test accurate.
Questions
- Is there a voicecel test for women?
- Yes. The original voicecel meme scale was built for male voices, with its main line at 130 Hz, so nearly every woman lands at the top of it. This version compares your median speaking pitch with adult women, using a published average of 199 Hz, and tells you where you sit among women instead of among men.
- Why does the original voicecel test call almost every woman a voicecel?
- Because its lines were drawn for men. Adult women speak at about 199 Hz on average, far above the meme's 130 Hz line. If women's pitch follows a bell curve around that average, about 99% of adult women speak above 130 Hz and about 94% above 155 Hz, the top band. The result reflects the scale, not your voice.
- What Hz is a deep voice for a woman?
- Using the Sydney Voice Lab norms for adult women, an average of 199 Hz with a standard deviation of 28 Hz, a median below about 184 Hz is lower than 70% of women, and below about 163 Hz is lower than 90%. Norms vary between studies, and older women in a large German study averaged about 169 Hz.
- What is the average female voice Hz?
- The Sydney Voice Lab's 2025 reference sheet gives 199 Hz as the average conversational pitch for adult women, with a standard deviation of 28 Hz. Other studies report lower figures: a German population study of adults aged 40 to 79 found women averaging about 169 Hz. Older textbook ranges put typical adult women between 165 and 255 Hz.
- Can I use this test if I am trans or nonbinary?
- Yes. Pick whichever comparison group you want with the toggle, or check both. Keep in mind that this test measures pitch only. How masculine or feminine a voice sounds also depends on resonance, which the test does not measure. If you are training your voice, a gender-affirming voice teacher or speech-language pathologist can guide you safely.
- Why is my voice lower than average for a woman?
- Usually for ordinary reasons. Three women in ten speak below 184 Hz on the Sydney norms, and other studies put the female average lower still. Speaking softly, the microphone and the room can also move the number. If your voice has changed suddenly, feels strained or stays hoarse, see a doctor or speech-language pathologist.