How this ping test works
Your browser sends 30 tiny HTTP requests to this site and times each round-trip. We report the minimum (your line's physical floor), the median (what you'll actually feel), the jitter (how much it wanders — jitter hurts real-time calls more than raw latency) and the worst sample. Everything is computed locally; the requests are plain page loads and no data about you is recorded.
What is a good ping?
| Average ping | Reading | You will feel it |
|---|---|---|
| ≤ 20 ms | Excellent | Competitive gaming, LAN-grade feel |
| 20–50 ms | Good | Most online games and video calls run clean |
| 50–100 ms | Playable | Noticeable in fast-paced games; calls OK |
| > 100 ms | High | Laggy for anything interactive |
Physics note: cross-continent routes cap out around 100–150 ms no matter how good your line is. Compare against servers in your region.
Why is my ping high?
- WiFi hops — every wireless leg adds 2–15 ms and jitter. Test on ethernet before blaming the ISP.
- Bufferbloat — ping is fine alone but explodes during downloads. That is a router queue problem: run the bufferbloat test to see it, then fix it with SQM.
- Congested routing — your ISP's path to the target is loaded. Try a different time of day; if it never recovers, escalate with evidence.
- VPN / proxy — adds a detour. Measure with and without.
Ping is only half the story
A clean idle ping with terrible in-game performance almost always means bufferbloat — latency under load. Check both: bufferbloat test (latency while saturated) and the packet loss test (dropped packets). The fix for all three symptoms is usually the same: SQM/CAKE on your router — see the OpenWrt SQM settings guide.
FAQ
What is a good ping?
Under 20 ms is excellent (competitive gaming, nearby servers). 20-50 ms is good for most online games and video calls. 50-100 ms is playable but noticeable in fast-paced games. Above 100 ms feels laggy for anything interactive, and above 200 ms makes real-time applications painful. Distance matters: physics caps cross-continent ping at roughly 100-150 ms.
Is a browser ping test as accurate as ICMP ping?
Close, but not identical. Browsers cannot send raw ICMP packets, so this test times HTTP round-trips instead — the same method speed tests use. HTTP adds a few milliseconds of overhead versus ICMP, so expect numbers about 2-10 ms higher than a command-line ping. The ranking (which connection is faster) is identical, and for diagnosing lag that is what matters.
My ping is fine alone but terrible when others download. Why?
That is bufferbloat: your router holds a huge queue while the line is saturated, so every packet — including your game traffic — waits behind bulk downloads. A clean-line ping test will not show it. Run the bufferbloat test, which measures latency while the line is loaded, and enable SQM/CAKE to fix it.