Ping and latency
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Latency is the time it takes for a small piece of data to travel from your device to a server and back. It is measured in milliseconds (ms). Ping is the everyday name for the same thing, after the old network tool that measures it. Lower is better.
What is a good ping?
| Latency | What it feels like |
|---|---|
| Under 20 ms | Excellent. Fast online games feel instant. |
| 20–50 ms | Very good for everything, including most competitive games. |
| 50–100 ms | Fine for browsing, streaming and calls; noticeable in fast games. |
| 100–150 ms | Calls get awkward pauses; games feel delayed. |
| Over 150 ms | Sluggish for anything interactive. |
The HowFast ratings use the same idea: online gaming is Great at 20 ms or less and Good up to 40 ms; video calls are Great at 50 ms or less and Good up to 100 ms. See the full rubric.
Latency vs speed
Speed (Mbps) is how much data can flow at once; latency is how long each piece takes to arrive. Think of a motorway: speed is the number of lanes, latency is the length of the journey. Adding lanes doesn’t make the trip shorter. That’s why upgrading to a faster plan often does nothing for lag in games or delays on calls.
What causes high latency
- Distance. Data travels at a fraction of the speed of light through fibre; a server on another continent adds tens of milliseconds by itself.
- Wi-Fi. Wireless links add delay, and much more when the signal is weak or the channel is crowded.
- A busy connection. When someone is uploading or downloading, data can queue in your router and latency rises sharply. This is bufferbloat, and it is the most common cause of lag that comes and goes.
- Connection type. Fiber usually has the lowest latency, then cable, then DSL; mobile networks vary with signal and load; geostationary satellite adds 500 ms or more.
- Routing. Your provider’s path to a particular server may be indirect.
How HowFast measures latency
The test sends 20 tiny requests to our server while nothing else is running and times each one, subtracting the time the server spends replying. The headline is the median, so a single slow request doesn’t distort it; the Diagnostics panel also shows the fastest request and the 95th percentile. Browser measurements include a little processing time on your device, so they usually read a few milliseconds higher than a command-line ping. The test then measures latency again while downloading and uploading, which is how the bufferbloat grade is worked out. Details are on the methodology page.
How to lower your latency
- Use a cable for gaming PCs, consoles and work computers. It removes Wi-Fi delay and interference.
- Fix bufferbloat. If latency jumps during the download or upload part of the test, turn on Smart Queue Management (SQM) or “QoS” on your router if it has it. This often helps more than anything else.
- Get closer to the router or add a mesh point with a wired backhaul if you must use Wi-Fi.
- Pause big transfers such as cloud backups and game updates while gaming or on calls.
- Pick nearby game servers where the game lets you choose.
- Turn off the VPN for gaming if you don’t need it; it adds a detour.
Frequently asked questions
Is ping the same as latency?
In everyday use, yes. Strictly, ping is a specific tool and message type, while latency is the delay itself. Speed tests measure latency with web requests rather than ping messages, which gives similar but slightly higher numbers.
Why is my ping high when my speed is fast?
Speed and latency are separate. High ping with fast speed usually points to Wi-Fi, a distant server, a VPN, or bufferbloat while something else is using the line.
What is idle latency and loaded latency?
Idle latency is measured while the connection is quiet. Loaded latency is measured while it is busy downloading or uploading. The difference between them is bufferbloat.