Latency is the time it takes for a data packet to travel from your device to a destination and back. It’s measured in milliseconds (ms) and is often called ping — named after the command-line tool used to test it.
If your download speed is like a motorway’s lane capacity, latency is how long it takes a car to reach its destination. High latency means slow responses even on a fast connection.
What’s a Good Ping?
- Under 20ms: Excellent — competitive gaming, real-time trading
- 20–50ms: Good — smooth gaming, video calls
- 50–100ms: Acceptable — most tasks fine, slight gaming lag
- 100–200ms: Noticeable — video calls may stutter, gaming is sluggish
- 200ms+: Poor — real-time apps become frustrating
What Causes High Latency?
- Physical distance: The further your data travels, the longer it takes
- Network congestion: Too much traffic on shared infrastructure
- Wi-Fi interference: Wireless adds latency vs wired connections
- Overloaded router: Too many devices or old hardware
- ISP routing: Your ISP may route traffic inefficiently
- VPN: Adds a hop — good VPNs minimise the impact
Latency vs Jitter
Jitter is the variation in latency over time. Even if your average ping is 30ms, if it swings between 5ms and 200ms randomly, your connection will feel unstable. Jitter matters most for video calls and real-time gaming. A consistent 60ms is usually better than an inconsistent 20–150ms.
How to Reduce Latency
- Use a wired Ethernet connection instead of Wi-Fi
- Connect to closer servers when gaming or streaming
- Upgrade your router — older models struggle with modern traffic
- Close background apps consuming bandwidth
- Enable QoS (Quality of Service) on your router to prioritise gaming/calls
- Contact your ISP if the problem is on their network
Check your ping: Use our Speed Test tool to see your current latency and jitter in real time.