What is a good ping, jitter and packet loss for gaming and video calls?
A speed test says you have 500 Mbps, yet the game still rubber-bands and the video call freezes. Download speed is rarely the problem for either. Three other numbers are: ping, jitter and packet loss.
The three numbers at a glance
| Great | Fine | Noticeable | Bad | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ping (ms) | under 20 | 20 to 50 | 50 to 100 | over 150 for fast games |
| Jitter (ms) | under 5 | 5 to 10 | 10 to 30 | over 30 |
| Packet loss | 0% | under 0.5%, rarely | 1 to 2% | over 2% |
These are rules of thumb, not standards. Turn-based and strategy games cope with 150 ms; competitive shooters and fighting games feel every 10 ms. Video calls tolerate more ping than games but hate jitter and loss, because the picture has to keep playing in order.
What each one means
- Ping is mostly distance plus the number of busy hops in between. Light in fibre takes about 1 ms per 100 km each way, so a server in another continent can never give you 10 ms.
- Jitter is the wobble: pings of 18, 19, 60, 18, 75 ms average 38 ms but feel much worse than a steady 38. Wi-Fi, busy evenings and full buffers are the usual causes.
- Packet loss is messages that never arrive. In a game the server stops hearing your moves, so you snap back (rubber-banding); in a call the sound cuts out. Wirebook explains packets with a picture: What is a packet?
How to measure them properly
A single ping tells you almost nothing. Send a hundred and look at the spread:
- Windows: open Command Prompt and run
ping -n 100 1.1.1.1. At the end you get Lost = n (x% loss) plus minimum, maximum and average times. A big gap between minimum and maximum means high jitter. - Mac / Linux:
ping -c 100 1.1.1.1. The last line shows min/avg/max and stddev (Mac) or mdev (Linux), which is a fair jitter figure. - Where is the loss? On Windows,
pathping 1.1.1.1tests every hop for a few minutes. On Mac or Linux,mtr 1.1.1.1does the same live. Loss that starts at hop 1 (your router) points to Wi-Fi or your own network; loss that starts further out and continues to the end points to your provider. - Run the same test with a cable to the router. If loss and jitter vanish, your Wi-Fi is the problem, not the line.
Loss shown on one middle hop but not on later ones is usually harmless: many routers on the internet deprioritise answering pings themselves while still forwarding your traffic normally.
What actually lowers lag
- Use a cable for the console or PC. It removes most jitter and loss in one step. If you can't, use 5 GHz close to the router.
- Choose the nearest server or region in the game's settings. Distance sets the floor for ping.
- Stop the line filling up: cloud photo backups, game downloads and uploads elsewhere in the house cause lag spikes. See internet lags when someone downloads.
- Check Wi-Fi drops if lag comes in bursts: Wi-Fi keeps disconnecting.
- Restart and update the router, and if loss starts beyond your router on several days, give your provider the pathping or mtr result. It is the evidence their support line asks for.
A faster plan rarely helps ping: the difference between 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps is how much fits through, not how soon it arrives. See bandwidth vs throughput vs latency.
Lag that isn't the internet
Ping only covers the trip to the game server. Before your move even leaves the house there is local input lag: the controller's polling rate, cable vs Bluetooth, the game's frame rate and above all the TV's picture processing (game mode often saves 50 ms or more, far more than a 1,000 Hz controller). A good ping with a sluggish feel usually points there. Wirebook has an interactive version: how a game controller talks to a console, and the lag ladder from thumb to TV.
Related
What is a contention ratio? · Reflex and Anti-Lag: lag on your own PC · Input lag calculator: press-to-picture delay · TV game mode: what it does · PS5 or Xbox downloads slow · Which Ethernet cable: Cat5e vs Cat6 · NAT type Strict: how to get Open · Wi-Fi extender vs mesh vs powerline · Internet lags when someone downloads (bufferbloat) · Mbps vs MB/s: internet speed explained · Mesh Wi-Fi backhaul and placement · Wi-Fi keeps disconnecting
Questions
What is a good ping for gaming?
Under 20 ms is excellent and 20 to 50 ms is good for nearly all online games. 50 to 100 ms is playable for most games, and above about 150 ms fast-paced games feel noticeably laggy.
Is 100 ms ping good?
It is playable for casual, turn-based and strategy games, but you will notice the delay in competitive shooters and fighting games.
What is a good jitter?
Under 10 ms is good, under 5 ms is great. Above about 30 ms, video calls become choppy and games feel inconsistent.
How much packet loss is acceptable?
Ideally 0%. Occasional loss under 0.5% is barely noticeable, but 1 to 2% causes stuttering and rubber-banding, and anything above that needs fixing.
How do I test packet loss on Windows?
Run ping -n 100 1.1.1.1 in Command Prompt and read the Lost percentage, or run pathping 1.1.1.1 to see which hop the loss starts at.
Does faster internet lower ping?
Usually not. Ping depends on distance, Wi-Fi and how busy the line is. A faster plan helps only if the line was full.
Published · updated .