Online Ping Tester

Latency is not speed

Bandwidth is how much data fits down the line. Latency is how long a single round trip takes. They are independent, and for a great many things latency matters more.

A video call, an online game or a remote desktop session all depend on round trips rather than throughput. A 1 Gbps connection with 200 ms of latency feels far worse for those than a 50 Mbps one at 15 ms.

What the four figures mean

• Median — the middle value of twelve requests. More representative than an average, which one bad request can distort.
• Best — the floor, closest to the pure round trip.
• Worst — the slowest. A large gap from the median means something intermittent.
• Jitter — how much consecutive requests vary. This is the figure that predicts whether a call will break up: steady high latency is manageable, unsteady latency is not.

Rough bands

• Under 30 ms — excellent; nothing will feel laggy
• 30–80 ms — fine for calls and most games
• 80–150 ms — noticeable in fast games, acceptable elsewhere
• Over 150 ms — conversations start overlapping awkwardly
• Jitter over 30 ms — expect calls to break up regardless of the median

What this measures, and against what

The measurement is between your device and this site's server, over whatever route the internet chooses today. That makes it a real measurement, but it is not the same as a dedicated speed-test service, which runs servers close to most users specifically to measure the line rather than the route.

If this reads lower than a dedicated test, the difference is usually distance and routing rather than your connection.

This is not quite a ping

A traditional ping uses ICMP, which a browser cannot send. This times small HTTP requests instead, so the figure includes a little web-server handling on top of the network round trip — typically a few milliseconds. The relative numbers are sound; the absolute floor is slightly higher than a command-line ping would show.

How to use it

1. Press start and wait for twelve requests.
2. Look at jitter as well as the median. Unsteady is worse than slow.
3. Compare wired against wireless. Wi-Fi adds both latency and jitter, often substantially.
4. Repeat when things feel bad, not only when they feel fine.

Common uses and tips

• Diagnosing a call that breaks up while the speed test looks fine. Jitter is usually the culprit.
• Checking whether Wi-Fi is the problem. A cable eliminates a whole class of causes in one test.
• Distance is unavoidable. Light takes about 5 ms per thousand kilometres in fibre, and the real route is never a straight line. A server on another continent cannot be fast.
• Satellite is different. Geostationary links have 500 ms or more of latency by physics; low-orbit services are far better but still above fibre.

Questions people ask

What is a good latency?

Under 30 ms is excellent, 30–80 ms is fine for calls and most games, and over 150 ms makes conversation awkward.

What is jitter and why does it matter?

How much consecutive round trips vary. Steady high latency is manageable; unsteady latency breaks up calls even when the median looks acceptable.

Is this the same as ping?

Close but not identical. A browser cannot send ICMP, so this times small HTTP requests instead, which adds a few milliseconds of server handling.

Why is my latency high on Wi-Fi?

Wireless adds both latency and jitter — it is a shared medium with retransmissions. A cable is the quickest way to confirm it.

Can latency be improved?

Some of it. Wired connections, a better router and avoiding congestion help. Distance to the server cannot be improved — it is physics.