What Is a Good Ping for Gaming? (2026 Latency Guide)
Ping (also called latency) is the time it takes for data to travel from your device to a server and back, measured in milliseconds. Unlike download speed, lower is better — and for gaming and calls, ping often matters more than raw speed.
Good ping ranges
Under 20 ms — excellent; ideal for competitive gaming. 20–50 ms — very good; smooth for almost everything. 50–100 ms — acceptable for casual play and calls. 100–150 ms — noticeable lag in fast games. Over 150 ms — frustrating for real-time gaming, though fine for streaming and browsing.
Why streaming doesn't care about ping
Netflix or YouTube buffer a few seconds ahead, so a 100 ms ping is invisible. But in an online shootout or a live video call, every millisecond of delay is felt directly.
How to lower your ping
Use a wired Ethernet connection instead of WiFi; close background downloads; enable QoS/SQM on your router to fight bufferbloat; choose a game server geographically close to you; and reboot your router. A VPN almost always increases ping, so disable it for gaming.
Ping vs jitter
Ping is the average delay; jitter is how much it varies. Stable 40 ms beats a jumpy 20–80 ms. Our test reports both, plus loaded latency — your ping while the connection is busy, which is what really causes in-game lag spikes.
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