Ping Test

Q: What is ping?

Ping, also called latency or round-trip time (RTT), is the time in milliseconds for a packet to leave your device, reach a server, and return. It is independent of download or upload speed.

Q: Why does ping matter?

Online games and video calls depend on packets arriving on time. High ping causes lag and rubber-banding in games and noticeable delay on calls, while browsing and streaming are largely tolerant of it.

Q: What causes high ping?

Physical distance to the server sets a physics floor, while Wi-Fi contention, ISP peak-hour congestion, VPN routing overhead, and overloaded routers add further delay on top.

Q: How can I lower my ping?

Switch to wired Ethernet, pick geographically closer game or app servers, use a fast DNS resolver, and pause background traffic so packets are not stuck queueing behind bulk downloads.

Ping measures how long it takes data to travel from your device to a server and back. Press GO to measure your latency right now.

Ping Score Reference

Under 20 ms - Excellent

Ideal for competitive gaming and real-time applications. Essentially imperceptible latency.

20–50 ms - Good

Suitable for all gaming, HD video calls, and live collaboration tools.

50–100 ms - Acceptable

Fine for streaming, browsing, and casual gaming. Noticeable in fast-paced multiplayer games.

100+ ms - Poor

Lag in gaming, delay on calls. Investigate Wi-Fi, VPN, or ISP congestion as causes.

What is ping?

Ping - Also called latency or round-trip time (RTT) - Is the time in milliseconds for a packet to leave your device, reach a server, and return. It has nothing to do with download or upload speed; a very fast connection can still have high ping if the routing path is long or congested.

Every speed test on Speedtest.now measures ping by sending a series of HTTP requests to the nearest test server and recording each round-trip time. We report the median value to filter out single-sample spikes. See how it's measured →

Why does ping matter?

Gaming

Online games synchronise player positions in real time. High ping means the server receives your inputs late and you see opponents' actions late - Producing the lag and rubber-banding effect. For competitive play, under 30 ms is the target. Most casual games are playable under 80 ms. See our Gaming Test page →

Video calls

Voice and video packets must arrive in order and on time. Above 150 ms both sides of a conversation experience noticeable echo-like delay. Above 300 ms conversations break down entirely. Full ping guide →

Browsing and streaming

These applications buffer content and are largely tolerant of high ping. Even 200 ms ping is unlikely to noticeably affect Netflix or web browsing under normal conditions.

What causes high ping?

Physical distance to the server - Data travels at roughly ⅔ the speed of light; distance imposes a physics floor
Wi-Fi - Radio channel contention adds 2–20 ms and increases jitter
ISP congestion - Peak-hour overloading causes packets to queue at routers
VPN - Adds routing and encryption overhead, often 10–40 ms extra
Router overload - A busy consumer router adds processing delay to every packet

How can I lower my ping?

Choose servers close to you - Distance is the one component of ping you can't engineer away, so picking a nearby game region or CDN endpoint cuts the propagation floor directly
Check your routing - If a traceroute shows traffic detouring through another country, a different VPN exit (or no VPN at all) can shave dozens of milliseconds
Use a fast DNS resolver such as 1.1.1.1 so the lookup before each new connection doesn't add avoidable delay - See our DNS speed test
Plug into Ethernet for latency-critical sessions; even good Wi-Fi adds a few milliseconds of contention on every round trip
Keep bulk transfers off the line while you play or call, so your packets aren't queueing behind someone's 4K stream

Still slow? Read our full guide on why your internet is slow or check the ISP rankings to compare your provider.