Key points
- Ping is the round-trip time for data, in milliseconds (ms) - Lower is better.
- Under 20 ms is excellent; under 50 ms is good; over 100 ms feels laggy.
- For gaming and calls, low ping beats high download speed.
- Wired connections, a nearby server and no VPN give the lowest ping.
Ping vs latency - What's the difference?
Latency is the time it takes a piece of data to travel from your device to a destination. Ping is the practical way we measure it: a small packet is sent to a server and the test times how long it takes to come back - The round trip. Both are measured in milliseconds (ms), and unlike download and upload, lower is better.
Think of download speed as the width of a pipe and ping as how long it takes water to start coming out. A very wide pipe still feels slow if there's a long delay before anything happens - That delay is latency.
What is a good ping?
| Ping | Rating | Experience |
|---|---|---|
| Under 20 ms | Excellent | Instant - Ideal for competitive gaming |
| 20–50 ms | Good | Smooth for gaming, calls and everything else |
| 50–100 ms | Fair | Fine for browsing; noticeable in fast games |
| Over 100 ms | Poor | Laggy - Delays in calls and games |
Satellite connections are a special case: geostationary satellite (HughesNet, Viasat) has 500–700 ms ping because signals travel ~35,000 km to orbit and back. Low-earth-orbit Starlink brings that down to 25–60 ms. See our connection types comparison.
Why ping matters
- Online gaming. Ping is often shown in-game as "latency." High ping causes rubber-banding, delayed hits and losing fights you should win.
- Video calls. High latency makes people talk over each other and creates awkward pauses.
- Browsing. Every page load involves dozens of round trips, so lower ping makes the whole web feel snappier - Even at the same Mbps.
- Cloud gaming & remote desktop. These stream in real time, so latency directly affects how responsive controls feel.
A 25 Mbps connection at 15 ms ping will out-game a 1 Gbps connection at 120 ms every time. Once you have enough bandwidth for the game (usually just a few Mbps), all that matters is low, stable latency and no jitter.
How to lower your ping
- Go wired. Ethernet is more consistent and lower-latency than Wi-Fi.
- Pick nearby servers. In games, choose the closest data centre; distance is physics you can't beat.
- Turn off the VPN for latency-sensitive tasks - It adds a detour through another server.
- Reduce congestion. Pause big downloads and use router QoS to prioritise games and calls.
- Upgrade the connection type. Fiber and cable have far lower latency than DSL or satellite.
- Restart your router periodically and keep firmware updated.