Chordify is the quickest way to find the chords of a song: paste a YouTube link and the chords scroll along with the music. But its free version stops after a few songs a day, and it isn’t the only app that does this.
Below are six apps that work out the chords for you, with exactly what each free version gives you, checked on 29 September 2026. After them come seven free tools that slow a song down and loop the hard part, because knowing the chords is only half the job.
If the song is well known, check the tab sites first; my list of websites for guitar tabs has the best ones. These apps are for the songs nobody has tabbed yet, or for checking a tab against the actual record.
Quick Comparison
| App | Works on | What’s free | Finds chords from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chordify | Web, iPhone, Android | 2 songs a day, 4 with a free account | Its song library and YouTube links |
| Moises | Web, computer, iPhone, Android | 5 uploads a month, chords for the first minute | Songs you upload |
| Chord ai | iPhone, Android | Basic chord types | Files, streaming apps, the microphone |
| Yamaha Chord Tracker | iPhone, Android | Everything | Songs stored on your phone |
| Capo | Mac, iPhone, iPad | Chords, slowing and looping | Songs you own |
| ChordU | Web, iPhone, Android | Basic chords | Song search and YouTube links |
Chordify
- Works on: web, iPhone, Android
- Made by: Chordify
- Free version: 2 songs a day, or 4 with a free account, with ads
- Paid: Basic, Premium and Premium Plus; on the US App Store from $8 a month or $42 a year
Chordify shows the chords of a song in time with the music, with chord diagrams for guitar, piano, ukulele or mandolin. Its Google Play listing claims chords for more than 36 million songs, and you can also paste in a YouTube link. The company says it combines AI with human music researchers to work the chords out.
The free version is the catch. Without an account you can play 2 songs a day on the website, and a free account raises that to 4. Pressing play counts as one of your songs, so choose carefully.
Premium is where the practice tools live: transpose, capo, looping, changing the tempo from 50% to 200% on YouTube songs, and uploading your own files. There’s a 14 day money back guarantee if you try it and don’t like it.
Moises
- Works on: web, Windows and Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android
- Made by: Moises Systems
- Free version: 5 uploads a month; chords for the first minute of each song
- Paid: Premium on the US App Store at $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year
Moises is best known for splitting a song into separate instruments, and it finds chords too. On the free plan you can split songs up to 5 minutes long into vocals and instrumental, or vocals, drums, bass and other. Mute the vocals and drums and the guitar is much easier to hear.
Its Chord Finder shows the chords in real time, in easy, medium or advanced versions, with a capo mode. On the free plan, though, it only covers the first minute of each song, and you get 5 uploads a month. Deleting songs doesn’t give you uploads back.
One useful tip from Moises itself: on songs with lots of instruments, split the song first and the chord detection comes out cleaner. Picking out the guitar as its own track, including lead and rhythm guitar separately, needs Premium.
Chord ai
- Works on: iPhone, iPad, Android
- Made by: Chord ai (listed as Nomad AI on the App Store)
- Free version: detects the basic chord types
- Paid: Pro on the US App Store at $10.99 a month or $69.99 a year
Chord ai listens three ways: to audio files on your phone, to songs playing in streaming and video apps, and live through the microphone, so it can follow a song playing in the room. It shows the chords, the beat and the lyrics, with finger positions for guitar, piano and ukulele, and it works offline unless you’re streaming.
The free version recognises the everyday chords: major, minor, augmented, diminished, 7th, major 7th, sus2 and sus4. Pro adds the rest, like power chords, 9ths, 11ths, 13ths and slash chords such as C/E, and what the maker calls more precision.
It’s popular: over a million downloads on Google Play and a 4.7 rating from about 59,000 reviews. The iPhone version also lists slowing down, pitch shifting, looping and splitting a song into four parts, but its listing doesn’t say which of those are free, so check in the app before you count on them.
Yamaha Chord Tracker
- Works on: iPhone, iPad, Android
- Made by: Yamaha
- Free version: all of it; no in app purchases or ads
- Paid: nothing
Yamaha’s app is the only one here that’s completely free. It analyses songs stored on your phone or tablet and shows the chord symbols, with guitar chord diagrams since version 2. You can change the tempo and the key, edit a chord it got wrong, and turn down the melody with a feature Yamaha calls the melody suppressor.
The limitation is where the songs come from. It won’t work with streaming services such as Apple Music, songs in iCloud, or anything copy protected, so you need the actual music file on your phone.
Yamaha is also refreshingly honest about accuracy. Its own note says the chords will match the mood of the original song very closely, but may not be an exact match. The video is old, from the version that added guitar chords, but the app works the same way.
Capo
- Works on: Mac, iPhone, iPad
- Made by: Super Mega Ultra Groovy
- Free version: chord detection, slowing and looping, with no time limit
- Paid: Capo Pro for Mac at $39.99 a year; Capo touch Pro for iPhone at $19.99 a year
If you have a Mac or an iPhone, Capo has the most generous free version of any app here. The Free Edition does full chord detection, slows songs down and loops sections, with no time limit and no cut off before the chorus. You only pay to save your chord edits or export audio, MIDI and lead sheets.
It runs a neural network on your own device, recognises 168 chord types plus inversions like D/F#, and works offline without uploading your music anywhere. The maker’s claim is modest: for most songs, Capo gets you about 90% of the way there, and it struggles when a recording is badly out of tune, the chords change very quickly, or there isn’t much harmony to hear.
The catch is that it only works with music files you own, such as MP3, WAV or FLAC, not Spotify or Apple Music. And there’s no Windows or Android version planned.
ChordU
- Works on: web, iPhone, Android
- Made by: Flowrec Solutions
- Free version: basic features, with ads
- Paid: Premium at $3.50 a month or $36 a year on the website
ChordU gives you chords for any song you search for or paste in as a YouTube link. You can switch between a simple version with only major and minor chords, an advanced version with 7ths and the rest, a bass version, and versions other users have edited. Diagrams cover guitar, piano, ukulele and mandolin.
The simple version is handy when you’re starting out. If the advanced chart throws a string of 7ths and diminished chords at you, switch to simple and play the song with the shapes you already know.
The website doesn’t spell out the free limits, but it lists looping, tempo change, capo, pitch control, uploads and isolating vocals or bass as Premium features. Premium is cheaper on the website ($3.50 a month) than in the App Store ($4.99).
How Accurate Are Chord Finder Apps?
Nobody has published an independent test, so all we have is what the makers say, and the honest ones admit their apps get things wrong. Capo says about 90% of the way there. Yamaha says close to the mood of the song but maybe not exact. Moises says quite accurate but it occasionally makes mistakes. Chord ai says it’s more precise than all other apps, which is marketing, not a measurement.
In practice, the apps do best on clear recordings with simple harmony, and worst on busy mixes, fast changes and songs that aren’t at standard pitch. So treat the result as a first draft and check it by ear:
- Play along with the recording. If a chord sounds wrong against the song, it probably is.
- Check it against the song’s key. Most songs stay inside one chord family, so a chord from outside it is worth a second listen.
- If every chord sounds slightly off, the song may be tuned down, like these songs in E flat tuning. Tune down to match, or change the pitch in the app.
- On a busy song, split out the instruments first (Moises or BandLab Splitter), then detect the chords.
Free Tools To Slow Down And Loop A Song
Once you have the chords, you need to hear the song slowly enough to play along. These seven tools do that, and none of them costs anything to start with.
BandLab Splitter
BandLab’s Splitter is free on the web and in the BandLab app. It splits any song into vocals, drums, bass and others, and then lets you change the speed and key and loop a section, all without paying. On the web you can even download the parts as WAV files.
The free version puts the guitar in the others track with everything else, since separate guitar and piano tracks need a BandLab membership. Songs can be up to 15 minutes and 100 MB, and you need to be online.
Amazing Slow Downer
The classic slow downer, around for years and still going. It plays songs from 20% to 200% speed on a computer, or 25% to 200% on a phone, without changing the pitch, and it can change the key in semitones or fine tune it in cents.
The free Lite versions for iPhone and Android only play the first quarter of each song, which is enough for a test drive but not for learning a whole solo. The full versions cost $9.95 on Android, $14.95 on iPhone and $39.95 on Windows or Mac, with a free trial for computers. On iPhone it works with Apple Music songs, though not with Spotify since Spotify changed its rules in 2022.
Anytune
Anytune’s free versions are more useful than most. On iPhone the free app slows songs down without changing the pitch, shifts the key, lets you set marks and plays songs from your Apple Music library, with extras in cheap add on packs (automatic looping between marks is in the $1.99 Basic Pack). On Android the core features are free, including looping, and it can slow down Spotify and Apple Music streams.
The Mac version costs $34.99, with a 30 day free trial.
Audacity
Audacity is a free audio editor for Windows, Mac and Linux, and it doubles as a practice tool. Its Change Tempo effect slows a section down without changing the pitch, and Change Pitch moves the key without changing the speed. Audacity 4 added loop controls on the timeline.
It can also split songs into drums, bass, vocals and other instruments with the free OpenVINO AI plugins, which run on your own computer without an internet connection. The video uses an older version, so the menus look a little different in Audacity 4.
VLC Media Player
You may already have VLC installed. It’s a free player for almost any audio or video file, and it has two hidden practice features. Press the minus key to slow down, plus to speed up and equals to go back to normal speed; VLC keeps the pitch the same by default. And its A to B button loops any section over and over, which is what the video shows.
YouTube
If you learn from YouTube, the player already slows down. On a computer, click the settings cog, then Speed; in the phone apps it’s Settings, then Playback speed.
The keyboard shortcuts make it much quicker: the less than key slows the video down, greater than speeds it up, J jumps back ten seconds, and the comma and full stop keys step through a paused video one frame at a time, which is handy for seeing exactly which fret a player is on. There’s no proper loop, so J is your best friend.
Transcribe!
Transcribe! isn’t free, but it’s a program built for exactly this job, working out music by ear, and it has a 30 day free trial. It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, slows music down anywhere from one twentieth speed to double without changing the pitch, stores as many named loops as you like, and even guesses the chords from a spectrum display.
Its maker is honest that the chord guessing isn’t a magic bullet, and says fully automatic transcription is still an unsolved problem. After the trial it costs $39. The demo video is by Andy Robinson, who wrote the program.
Common Questions
Is There A Completely Free Chord Finder?
Yes. Yamaha Chord Tracker is completely free, with no in app purchases, as long as your songs are stored on your phone. On a Mac or iPhone, Capo’s Free Edition gives you full chord detection with no time limit.
Do Chord Finder Apps Work With Spotify Or Apple Music?
Mostly not. Capo, Yamaha Chord Tracker and the desktop Amazing Slow Downer need music files you own. Chord ai can listen to streaming apps on Android, Anytune’s Android app can slow down Spotify and Apple Music, and Chordify and ChordU work from YouTube links instead.
Can These Apps Separate The Guitar?
Only on paid plans. Free splitting in Moises and BandLab puts the guitar in an other track, together with keys and anything else. Separate guitar tracks need Moises Premium or a BandLab membership.
Conclusion
For most people, I’d start with Chordify for well known songs, since the chords are already waiting in its library, and use Moises or Chord ai for anything more obscure. If you’re on a Mac or an iPhone, try Capo first: its free version is the most generous of the lot. And for slowing things down, VLC and YouTube’s own speed setting cost nothing and are probably on your computer already.
Just remember the chords an app gives you are a draft, and your ears have the final say. If the chord shapes themselves are still the hard part, my book, From First Chord to First Solo, teaches 16 essential chords through ten original songs, and there are plenty of easy songs to practise them on in my list of songs with G, C and D.
Good luck and keep on rockin’!
If you found this article useful, you may want to save this pin below to your Guitar board.
Recent Posts
A cab IR is a small WAV file that makes your amp simulator sound like a real speaker cabinet with a microphone in front of it. If your free amp sim or Neural Amp Modeler sounds fizzy, thin or harsh,...
G major is the key most guitarists end up in without ever choosing it. The open shapes sit under the hand, the chords ring against the open strings, and an enormous amount of rock, folk and country...