A carillon-like instrument with fewer than 23 bells is called a chime.

American chimes usually have one to one and a half diatonic octaves. Many chimes play an automated piece of music. Prior to 1900, chime bells typically lacked dynamic variation and the inner tuning (the mathematical balance of a bell's complex sound) required to permit the use of harmony. Since 1900, chime bells produced in Belgium, the Netherlands, England, and America have inner tuning and can produce fully harmonized music. Some towers in England hung for full circle change ringing have capacity for chiming by an Ellacombe apparatus.

The chime described here, should not be confused with an unrelated musical instrument, the tubular bell, sometimes called chimes; nor with a wind chime.

The first ever bell chime was created in 1487 in The Renaissance Era.