What Is a Good Ping? Complete Reference Guide (2026)

Ping โ€” also called latency โ€” is the round-trip time in milliseconds for a data packet to travel from your device to a server and back. While download speed determines how much data your connection can carry, ping determines how fast your connection responds. For most everyday browsing, ping barely matters. For gaming, video calls, and live streaming, it's the most important metric of all.

Run our free ping test above on internetspeedtesters.online to see your current latency before reading further โ€” it makes the benchmarks below much more meaningful.

Ping Reference: What's Good, Fair, and Poor

Under 20ms
Excellent
Imperceptible delay in every application. Perfect for competitive gaming, HD video calls, and live streaming.
20โ€“50ms
Good
Minor delay only noticeable in the most competitive FPS games. Excellent for casual gaming and all video calls.
50โ€“100ms
Acceptable
Standard for most broadband connections. Fine for casual gaming and video calls, but competitive gamers will notice.
100โ€“150ms
Poor
Noticeable input lag in gaming. Video calls may show slight delay. Troubleshoot before competitive gaming.
150ms+
Very Poor
All real-time applications suffer significantly. Contact your ISP or check your network hardware.
Packet Loss
Separate Issue
Even 1โ€“2% packet loss causes stuttering in gaming and calls. 0% is the only acceptable value for real-time use.

Ping by Use Case

Use CaseMinimum PingIdeal PingMax Acceptable
๐ŸŽฎ Competitive FPS (Valorant, CS2)Any<20ms60ms
๐ŸŽฎ Battle Royale (Fortnite, Warzone)Any<30ms80ms
๐ŸŽฎ MOBA (LoL, Dota 2)Any<50ms100ms
๐ŸŽฎ MMORPG (WoW, FFXIV)Any<100ms150ms
๐Ÿ’ป Zoom / Teams (HD call)Any<50ms150ms
๐Ÿ“ก Twitch / YouTube LiveAny<50ms100ms
๐ŸŒ General BrowsingAnyAnyNot critical

What Causes High Ping? 6 Real Causes

1. Distance to Server (Physics Limit)

Light travels through fiber optic cable at approximately 200,000 km/s. A round trip to a server 3,000 km away has a minimum theoretical latency of about 30ms โ€” this is unavoidable physics. Always connect to the closest available game server on internetspeedtesters.online to minimize this distance-related delay.

2. Wi-Fi vs Ethernet

Wireless connections add 5โ€“30ms of latency compared to wired connections, even on fast Wi-Fi. A Wi-Fi 6 router 2 metres away will still add more latency than an Ethernet cable of the same distance. If your ping test shows consistently high results, switching to Ethernet is the single most effective fix.

3. ISP Network Congestion

During peak hours (7โ€“10 PM on weekdays), your ISP's network handles dramatically more traffic. Cable internet users sharing a local node often see ping increase by 30โ€“80ms during these hours. Run our ping test at 3 AM and 8 PM to document the difference โ€” this evidence supports ISP complaints.

4. Router Processing Delay

Budget routers process each network packet in software, adding 5โ€“20ms of processing delay. Gaming routers use hardware NAT acceleration to reduce this to 1โ€“2ms. If you're gaming seriously and using an ISP-supplied router from 2018, this alone could explain 15โ€“20ms of your ping.

5. Outdated DNS

A slow DNS server adds delay before every connection. Switching from your ISP's default DNS to Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or Google (8.8.8.8) can reduce connection setup time by 20โ€“50ms per page load, though this doesn't directly affect gaming ping to a fixed server.

6. Background Applications

Windows Update, cloud sync (Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive), antivirus definition downloads, and streaming apps consuming bandwidth all increase network congestion on your local connection. Check Task Manager โ†’ Network column to identify processes consuming bandwidth during your ping test.

How to Reduce Your Ping: 5 Proven Methods

1
Switch from Wi-Fi to Ethernet

The single most effective change. Eliminates wireless interference and reduces latency by 5โ€“30ms immediately.

2
Select the closest server region

In online games, always choose the server closest to your physical location. A London player connecting to a US East server adds 80โ€“120ms of unavoidable distance latency.

3
Enable QoS on your router

Quality of Service (QoS) prioritises gaming traffic over background downloads. Find it in your router's admin panel (usually 192.168.1.1) under Advanced or Traffic Management.

4
Update router firmware

Router manufacturers regularly release firmware updates that improve routing performance. Check your router admin panel for available updates.

5
Contact your ISP with evidence

If ping is consistently over 80ms on a fibre connection via Ethernet, run our ping test 3 times daily for 3 days and present the timestamped results when calling your ISP support line.

Run Another Ping Test

Test again after making changes to see if your ping improved.

Frequently Asked Questions

Under 20ms is excellent for any game including competitive FPS. 20โ€“50ms is good for most online gaming. 50โ€“100ms is acceptable for casual gaming but competitive players will notice. Above 100ms causes clear input lag in fast-paced games.
Ping spikes โ€” sudden jumps in latency โ€” are usually caused by: Wi-Fi interference from other devices, background applications consuming bandwidth (Windows Update, cloud sync), ISP network congestion during peak hours, or an overloaded router needing a restart.
50ms ping is acceptable for casual Fortnite but competitive players typically aim for under 30ms. For most Fortnite players, the difference between 30ms and 50ms is barely noticeable. The difference between 50ms and 120ms is very significant.
On Windows: open Command Prompt, type "ping google.com -n 20" and press Enter. On Mac/Linux: open Terminal and type "ping -c 20 google.com". This sends 20 packets and shows min, max, and average ping. Our ping test on internetspeedtesters.online gives the same results with a visual interface.

Also see: Full Speed Test (Download + Upload + Ping) ยท Jitter Test ยท What Is a Good Internet Speed?