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Maximum Heart Rate Calculator

Find your max heart rate for training zones.

How it is calculated

The tool gives two age-based estimates of maximum heart rate in beats per minute. The classic rule is 220 - age. The Tanaka formula is 208 - 0.7 × age. Age is in years and must be above 0 and below 120. Each result is rounded to a whole bpm. The two formulas agree around age 40 and drift apart at the extremes: the classic rule gives lower values than Tanaka for older people and higher values for the young. Both are population averages with a wide individual spread, so a measured maximum from a supervised test is more reliable than either.

Worked example

A 30-year-old. Classic formula: 220 - 30 = 190 bpm. Tanaka formula: 0.7 × 30 = 21, so 208 - 21 = 187 bpm. The two estimates differ by 3 bpm. For a 60-year-old they would give 160 and 166 bpm, showing that the gap widens with age.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Treating the estimate as a limit you must not exceed. It is only an average; real maximum rates vary by well over 10 bpm either way.
  • Entering age in months or entering the target training heart rate instead of age.
  • Using the result for people on heart-rate-lowering medication, such as beta blockers; the formulas ignore this.
  • Comparing the two outputs as if one were wrong. They are different empirical fits.

About this calculator

This calculator estimates maximum heart rate two ways: the classic 220 − age formula (the Fox formula), and the more research-supported Tanaka formula, 208 − 0.7 × age, which tends to be more accurate for older adults since the original formula was derived from a smaller, younger sample.

It's used by runners and cyclists setting up heart-rate training zones (fat-burn, aerobic, threshold, peak), personal trainers programming interval workouts, and anyone starting a cardio routine who wants a target range to aim for without a lab-based VO2 max test.

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