Input Lag Calculator (controller, mouse and TV lag in ms)
How long does a button press take to reach the screen? Pick your setup and see every piece of the lag, the luckiest and unluckiest press, and which change would help most.
What would help most
Nothing left that saves more than half a millisecond. This is about as quick as this kind of setup gets.
How it works
A press goes through six steps before you see it. The controller, mouse or keyboard reports its state a fixed number of times a second (the polling rate), so a press waits up to one gap for the next report. The report then makes the trip over a cable, a 2.4 GHz dongle or Bluetooth. The game reads input once per frame, so it waits for the game to look, then spends about two frames making the picture (simulating, then rendering). The finished picture waits for the screen's next refresh to be drawn, and finally the screen adds its own processing, which on a TV with picture extras turned on is often the biggest piece of all.
Each wait depends on luck: a press just before the next report, frame or refresh gets through quickly, and one just after waits a full gap. The calculator shows the typical total (the middle of every gap) plus the luckiest and unluckiest press, because that spread is what makes timing feel inconsistent. The coloured bar shows how big each piece is, and What would help most tries every other option for each setting and ranks them by the milliseconds they save. Press Try it to apply one.
The figures are rounded, typical values, not a measurement of your hardware: real controllers, games and screens vary, and some games add extra frames of buffering. For a screen, use the input lag figure from a review if you have one (choose My own figure). Online games add your network ping on top for other players' actions, but your own movements are usually shown straight away. Pin this setup to compare two setups, and Copy link to share yours; the settings live only in the link, nothing is stored. Background: what TV game mode does, polling rate 125 vs 1000 Hz, wired vs wireless vs Bluetooth controllers and the Wirebook lesson on how a controller talks to a console. Need the same estimate in a script or a setup helper? Anvil's free input lag API returns the six parts, the verdict and the ranked fixes as JSON, with no key.
Questions
What is a good input lag?
Under about 50 ms from press to picture feels instant to most people. Competitive PC setups reach 15 to 30 ms. Above about 100 ms, aiming and timing start to feel floaty.
What adds the most input lag?
Usually the screen. A TV with motion smoothing and other picture extras can add 50 to 150 ms on its own; game mode cuts that to roughly 10 to 20 ms. Low frame rates and V-Sync come next.
Does a higher polling rate reduce lag?
A little. Going from 125 Hz to 1000 Hz saves about 3.5 ms on average. It matters most when everything else is already fast.
Is Bluetooth slower than a cable?
Typically by a few milliseconds, and the delay wobbles more. A 2.4 GHz dongle sits close to a cable.
Does higher fps reduce input lag even on a 60 Hz screen?
Yes, with V-Sync off. The game reads your input more often and finishes each picture sooner, so the newest picture is fresher when the screen refreshes.
Is anything sent or saved?
No. It's arithmetic in your browser. Settings are only kept in the link if you copy it.