Heart Rate Tapper: How to Tap Your Pulse and Get Your BPM

You can try it right now with our free tap BPM counter. It needs no camera, no sign-up, and nothing is uploaded.

How does a heart rate tapper work?

Every time you tap, the tool records the exact moment. The gap between two taps is one beat interval. Divide 60 seconds by the average interval and you have your heart rate in beats per minute.

Average time between taps	Heart rate
1.0 second	60 BPM
0.8 seconds	75 BPM
0.75 seconds	80 BPM
0.6 seconds	100 BPM

Single taps are never perfectly on time, because your reaction time varies a little. That is why a good tapper averages several intervals instead of showing one. Our counter waits for five taps, then uses the average of your last ten intervals and ignores gaps that are far too short or too long to be a real beat.

For context, Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic both describe a normal adult resting pulse as 60 to 100 beats per minute. See what is a normal resting heart rate for ranges by age and fitness.

How do you use a heart rate tapper step by step?

1. Sit down and rest. Sit quietly for about five minutes first. A reading taken right after walking, talking or climbing stairs is not a resting heart rate.
2. Find your pulse at the wrist. Turn one palm up. Place the tips of your index and middle fingers of the other hand on the thumb side of the wrist, between the bone and the tendon. Press lightly. Do not use your thumb, which has its own pulse and can confuse the count.
3. Or use your neck. Place two fingers in the groove beside your windpipe, on one side only, and press gently. Cleveland Clinic advises checking with a provider before using the neck pulse, because pressing on the carotid artery is not safe for everyone.
4. Open the tapper. Hold your phone or keep your other hand near the keyboard so you can tap without moving the hand that feels the pulse.
5. Tap on every beat. Tap once each time you feel a beat. Do not anticipate the next one; react to what you feel.
6. Keep going for 10 to 20 taps. Watch the number settle. Once it stops moving by more than a beat or two, that is your reading.
7. Write it down. Note the time and what you were doing, so you can compare like with like on another day.

How accurate is tapping your heart rate?

A tapper is only as good as your taps. With a steady pulse and 10 or more careful taps, it gives a reasonable estimate for everyday checks. The main sources of error are easy to fix:

• Missed beats. If you lose the pulse for a moment, the gap doubles and drags the average down. Reset and start again.
• Extra taps. A nervous double tap creates a very short gap. Good tappers throw these out, but it is still worth starting over.
• Too few taps. Three or four taps are a guess. More intervals give a steadier average.
• Not truly resting. Movement, talking, caffeine and stress all raise heart rate. That is a real change, not a tapping error.

How does this compare with counting? Mayo Clinic suggests counting your pulse for a full minute unless your care team gives you other instructions, and notes that some people count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4. Cleveland Clinic describes counting for 30 seconds and doubling the result. Shorter counts are faster but less precise. With a 15-second count, every beat you miss or add changes the final number by 4 BPM.

A simulation study published in Ergonomics compared short counts with a full 60-second count and found the error grew as the counting window got shorter. For 15-second counts, the average difference was about 1.8 to 1.9 BPM. The same logic applies to a tapper: more beats, smaller error.

If your taps never settle and the number keeps swinging by 10 or more, stop tapping and count for a full minute. A pulse that feels uneven is worth noting and raising with a doctor.

Is there an easier way than tapping on iPhone?

Tapping works anywhere, but it needs your full attention and gives you heart rate only. If you have an iPhone, the camera can do the work for you.

Pulse Tracker measures heart rate from your fingertip on the iPhone camera, using the flash to light the skin and reading the tiny color changes with each heartbeat. Instead of tapping, you hold still for about 30 seconds. You see a live pulse wave and a quality score, so you know whether the reading was clean. The same scan also measures heart rate variability (RMSSD, SDNN and pNN50), respiratory rate, stress and energy, and compares your results with your 30-day baseline. Heart rate measurement is free and unlimited, and readings can sync with Apple Health.

For the full walkthrough, see how to measure heart rate on iPhone and how to measure your pulse with a phone camera.

When is a tapper the right tool?

A heart rate tapper is handy when:

• You have no smartwatch, chest strap or camera app at hand.
• You are on a laptop or desktop computer.
• You want to check a reading from another method by hand.
• You are helping someone else and can feel their pulse while you tap.

It is less suited to checking heart rate during exercise, because it is hard to feel a pulse and tap accurately while moving. Use a wearable or check right after you stop, while still in place.

When should you see a doctor?

A single high or low tapped number is rarely a concern on its own, especially right after activity, coffee or stress. Recheck after five minutes of rest before drawing conclusions.

Book an appointment with your doctor if:

• Your resting heart rate is regularly above 100 or below 60 and you are not a trained athlete.
• Your pulse often feels like it skips, flutters or is irregular. Cleveland Clinic lists this as a reason to call your provider.
• You feel dizzy, unusually tired or short of breath with everyday activity.
• Your usual resting number has changed noticeably without an obvious reason.

Call emergency services (911 in the US) right away if a racing, pounding or very slow heartbeat comes with chest pain or pressure, fainting or near-fainting, severe shortness of breath, sudden weakness or confusion. Do not stop to tap or recheck in that situation.

Sources

• Mayo Clinic, How to take your pulse
• Mayo Clinic, Heart rate: What’s normal?
• Cleveland Clinic, How to check your pulse
• Cleveland Clinic, What are pulse points and where can you find them?
• Cleveland Clinic, Heart rate: Normal rates and what to know
• MedlinePlus, Pulse
• Kobayashi H. Effect of measurement duration on accuracy of pulse-counting. Ergonomics, 2013.

Related: Tap BPM counter · How to measure heart rate on iPhone · Normal resting heart rate by age · How to Measure Your Pulse With Your Phone Camera

Wellness disclaimer. Pulse Tracker is intended for general wellness use only. It is not a medical device, is not FDA cleared or approved, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or condition. Blood pressure shown in the app is either a value you entered from your own cuff or an estimate derived from the pulse signal after cuff calibration; it is not a measurement and must not be used to make medical decisions. Read the full wellness disclaimer. Camera readings, estimates and classifications are for general information only and can be affected by movement, lighting, skin temperature and other factors. Do not use them to diagnose, treat or make decisions about a medical condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional, and call emergency services if you have chest pain, shortness of breath, fainting or other urgent symptoms.