Ping test
Measure your connection's latency (ping) and jitter in real time, straight from your browser.
What is ping (latency)?
Ping, or latency, is the time it takes a packet to travel from your device to a server and back, measured in milliseconds (ms). Unlike download, which counts Mbps and describes how much data you can move at once, ping measures responsiveness: how quickly the network reacts to each action. The lower it is, the more instant everything feels, from a click that loads a page to a shot that registers in an online game. The name comes from the sonar "ping" that bounces off an object and returns; here the packet bounces off a server. Because it's a round trip, the figure already includes the journey out and the reply back.
Ping vs jitter vs packet loss
These three numbers describe the quality of a connection, and they're not the same thing. Ping is the average delay. Jitter is how much that delay wobbles from one packet to the next: a steady 40 ms feels smooth, while a ping that swings between 20 ms and 120 ms feels erratic even though its average looks fine. Packet loss is the share of packets that never arrive and have to be resent, which shows up as freezes in a call or rubber-banding in a game. A great line has low ping, low jitter and near-zero loss together; fixing only one of the three rarely solves stutter on its own. The test above reports your minimum, average, maximum and jitter so you can see the spread, not just a single number.
Which values are good?
As a rule of thumb: under 20 ms is excellent, ideal for competitive gaming; 20-60 ms is great for everything; 60-100 ms is fine for streaming and browsing but noticeable in fast-paced gaming; over 100 ms can cause obvious lag. Different activities have different tolerances: fast shooters and fighting games want the lowest ping and the tightest jitter you can get, whereas video calls care most about low jitter and no packet loss, and video streaming barely notices latency at all because the player buffers seconds of footage ahead. For voice and video chat, aim for jitter under about 10 ms so speech stays natural. Treat these as indicative bands rather than hard cut-offs, since your own measurement depends on how far the test server is.
What affects your latency?
Several factors stack up between your click and the server's reply. Physical distance is the floor: signals can't beat the speed of light, so a server on another continent will always answer more slowly than a nearby one. The medium matters too, since fibre carries light with very little delay while older copper and long wireless hops add more. Congestion raises ping when a link is busy, whether that's your own household saturating the upload during a big backup or the wider network at peak evening hours. Finally, the last metre is often the biggest culprit: Wi-Fi introduces radio latency, retransmissions and interference from neighbours and microwaves, which is why the same line frequently pings lower over a cable than over Wi-Fi.
Why does ping fluctuate?
A ping that jumps around usually points to something contending for the connection. Background downloads, cloud sync, system updates and other devices streaming video all queue packets and push latency up in bursts, an effect called bufferbloat. Wi-Fi adds its own variability as your device juggles interference and roams between bands. Occasional spikes toward one destination often mean congestion somewhere along the route rather than a fault on your side. If the average is fine but the maximum in the test above is far higher, that gap is your jitter, and it's the number to chase down when calls or games stutter despite a "fast" connection.
Fibre, fixed-wireless and satellite latency
The technology behind your line sets a baseline you can't tune away. Fibre typically delivers the lowest and steadiest latency because light travels through glass with minimal delay. Cable and DSL sit a little higher but are usually fine for gaming. Fixed wireless and 4G/5G add the overhead of the radio link, so ping is higher and more variable, though modern 5G narrows the gap considerably. Geostationary satellite is in a class of its own: because the signal travels roughly 36,000 km up and back, latency of several hundred milliseconds is unavoidable regardless of the advertised speed, which is why it struggles with real-time gaming. Low-earth-orbit satellite services cut that dramatically by flying far closer to the ground.
How to reduce your ping
The most effective fix is to connect over an Ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi: it removes interference and radio latency in one step. A modern router with QoS or Smart Queue Management tames bufferbloat, a good Ethernet cable keeps the wired path clean, and closing background downloads frees up the link while you play or call. Choosing a game or app server geographically close to you shaves off distance-based delay. If your ping is only high toward certain destinations, the problem is in the network path rather than your home: check your ISP's network status and rerun the test at a quieter time to compare.
FAQ
What's a good ping for gaming?
Under 30 ms is great, under 50 ms is good. Above 100 ms, fast-paced online games become hard to play well.
Why is my ping high even on fiber?
It's often down to Wi-Fi, background downloads or distance from the server. Try a wired connection and run the test again: if it improves a lot, Wi-Fi was the bottleneck.
Are ping and latency the same thing?
Yes, in everyday language they're synonyms: both refer to the round-trip delay of a packet, measured in milliseconds.
Is this test reliable?
It measures latency to a low-latency public endpoint using multiple samples and discarding the extremes. Browsers can't use ICMP ping, so the measurement runs over HTTP: values are slightly higher than raw ICMP but consistent and comparable.
What is jitter, and why does it matter?
Jitter is how much your ping varies from one packet to the next. Even with a low average, high jitter makes voice calls choppy and games feel inconsistent because packets arrive unevenly. Aim for jitter under about 10 ms for smooth real-time use.
Does lower ping mean faster download speed?
No. Ping measures delay, while download and upload measure how much data you can move per second. A line can have very low ping but modest Mbps, or high bandwidth with sluggish latency. For raw speed, run the full speed test instead.
Why is satellite internet ping so high?
Traditional geostationary satellites orbit about 36,000 km up, so the signal has a long round trip that adds hundreds of milliseconds no matter how fast the connection. That physical distance, not the plan, is what makes real-time gaming hard on such links. Low-earth-orbit services reduce it sharply by flying much closer.
Does a VPN increase my ping?
Usually a little, because your traffic takes a detour through the VPN server before reaching its destination. Choosing a server close to you keeps the added delay small; a distant server can raise ping noticeably.
