Comparison was made experimentally with carbon and oxygen atoms on tungsten between the widely used peak‐to‐peak height measurements in dEN (E)/dE mode spectra, A, and the rarely used Auger peak heights and areas in EN (E) mode spectra, H and S, respectively, as measures of the signal in Auger electron spectroscopy. The proportionality between A and S was found to hold or not depending on whether chemical changes of the elements did not or did occur, respectively. As a quantitative example, carbide was found to have A‐values about 3.5 times larger than graphite for the same atomic concentration. For carbon, the H‐values gave better indications of concentration than A. An example is presented in which the observation of an A vs S relation provides a means to detect the chemical change of specimens more sensitively than by observing Auger peak shapes.