What is a good ping?

Ping (latency) is the time it takes data to go from your device to a server and back, measured in milliseconds (ms). Lower is better. Test yours now with the FernTool ping test.

Good ping ranges

0–20 ms: Excellent. Ideal for competitive shooters.
20–50 ms: Good for all gaming and video calls.
50–100 ms: Playable; slight delay in fast games.
100–150 ms: Noticeable lag in games; fine for streaming.
150 ms+: Laggy. Calls may talk over each other.

Jitter and packet loss

Jitter is how much ping varies between measurements. A steady 60 ms is often nicer than a ping that jumps between 20 and 120 ms. Under 10 ms jitter is good. Packet loss means some data never arrives. Anything above 1% causes rubber-banding and robotic call audio.

Why distance matters

Light in fibre covers about 200 km per millisecond, so physics sets a floor. A round trip from Johannesburg to London (roughly 9,000 km each way) can’t be faster than about 90 ms, and in practice is around 150–170 ms. That’s why South African gamers get far better ping on local servers in Johannesburg or Cape Town than on European ones.

How to lower your ping

Use Ethernet instead of Wi‑Fi, or move closer to the router. Wi‑Fi adds jitter.
Stop big uploads and downloads on the network (cloud backup, game updates, 4K streams). A full upload line wrecks ping.
Choose the nearest game server or region.
Restart the router and update its firmware; enable QoS or SQM if it has it.
Fibre beats wireless: LTE and 5G typically add 20–50 ms and more jitter at busy times. See fibre vs LTE vs 5G.

Speeds also drop at peak times. See why internet is slow at night, and run the full speed test for download and upload.

Frequently asked questions

Is 50 ms ping good?

Yes. 50 ms is good for gaming, streaming and video calls. Competitive players prefer under 30 ms.

Does faster internet lower ping?

Not much. Ping depends on distance, routing and congestion more than package speed, though a congested slow line can raise it.

Why is my ping high on Wi‑Fi?

Wi‑Fi has interference and retransmissions that add latency and jitter. A cable to the router usually lowers both.