SwiftNetScanWhat Is Ping, Latency, and Jitter?
Last updated: April 11, 2026
While download and upload speeds get the most attention, ping, latency, and jitter are equally important for your online experience — especially for gaming, video calls, and any real-time application. These three metrics determine how responsive your connection feels, regardless of how fast your raw speeds are. A connection with 500 Mbps download but 200 ms ping will feel worse for gaming than a 50 Mbps connection with 15 ms ping.
What Is Latency?
Latency is the total time it takes for data to travel from one point to another across a network. It encompasses the entire journey: from your device, through your router, through your ISP's network, across the internet backbone, to the destination server, and back again.
Latency is measured in milliseconds (ms) and is composed of several types of delay:
Types of Latency
- Propagation delay: The time light or electrical signals take to physically travel through cables and fiber. Even at the speed of light, crossing a continent takes approximately 20–30 ms. This is a physical limitation that cannot be eliminated.
- Transmission delay: The time needed to push all bits of a packet onto the network link. Larger packets take longer. On modern broadband, this is typically under 1 ms.
- Processing delay: The time routers and switches take to examine packet headers, check routing tables, and forward packets. Each hop adds a small amount of processing time.
- Queuing delay: The time packets wait in buffer queues at congested routers. This is the most variable component and the primary cause of latency spikes during peak hours.
What Latency Numbers Mean
| Latency Range | Rating | User Experience |
|---|---|---|
| 0–20 ms | Excellent | Imperceptible delay. Ideal for competitive gaming and real-time collaboration. |
| 20–50 ms | Good | Minimal noticeable delay. Suitable for most gaming and video calls. |
| 50–100 ms | Fair | Some delay noticeable in fast-paced games. Video calls work but may feel slightly sluggish. |
| 100–200 ms | Poor | Obvious delay. Competitive gaming suffers significantly. Video call audio can overlap. |
| 200+ ms | Very Poor | Frustrating delay in all real-time applications. Typical of satellite internet (geostationary). |
What Is Ping?
Ping is technically a specific network utility that sends an ICMP echo request to a server and measures how long the response takes. In everyday usage, "ping" and "latency" are often used interchangeably to mean the round-trip time (RTT) of a small packet.
When a speed test reports "Ping: 25 ms," it means a test packet took 25 milliseconds to travel from your device to the test server and back. This is your round-trip latency to that specific server.
Ping vs. Latency: The Difference
While related, they're not identical:
- Latency is the general concept of network delay — the total time for data to travel between two points.
- Ping is a specific measurement of round-trip latency using ICMP packets. It's one way to measure latency.
- In practice, your ping measurement is a good approximation of your latency to a given server, but actual application latency may differ slightly due to TCP vs. ICMP handling, server processing time, and application-layer overhead.
What Is Jitter?
Jitter measures the inconsistency of latency — specifically, the variation in the time between successive packets arriving at their destination. If your ping is 20 ms for one packet, 45 ms for the next, and 12 ms for the one after, you have high jitter.
Technically, jitter is calculated as the average deviation from the mean latency over a series of measurements.
Why Jitter Matters
Real-time applications rely on packets arriving at regular intervals. When jitter is high:
- Voice calls: Words become choppy, with syllables cut off or repeated. The conversation becomes difficult to follow.
- Video calls: Video freezes momentarily, then jumps ahead. Audio and video go out of sync.
- Online gaming: Characters stutter, teleport, or "rubber-band" back to previous positions. Hit registration becomes unreliable.
- Live streaming: Viewers experience buffering and quality drops even when bandwidth is sufficient.
Jitter Ratings
| Jitter | Rating | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5 ms | Excellent | Imperceptible. Ideal for all real-time applications. |
| 5–15 ms | Good | Minor impact on competitive gaming. Calls and streaming are fine. |
| 15–30 ms | Fair | Noticeable in gaming. Occasional audio artifacts in calls. |
| 30+ ms | Poor | Significant impact on all real-time applications. |
How These Metrics Affect Different Activities
Online Gaming
Gaming is the activity most sensitive to these metrics. For competitive multiplayer games (CS2, Valorant, Fortnite, Call of Duty), players need:
- Ping under 30 ms (ideally under 15 ms)
- Jitter under 5 ms
- Zero or near-zero packet loss
For casual and turn-based games, requirements are more relaxed — ping under 100 ms and jitter under 30 ms are generally acceptable.
Video Conferencing
Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet recommend:
- Ping under 150 ms (under 50 ms for best experience)
- Jitter under 30 ms
- Packet loss under 1%
VoIP (Internet Calling)
Voice calls are sensitive to latency and jitter but less demanding than video:
- One-way latency under 150 ms (round-trip under 300 ms)
- Jitter under 30 ms
- Packet loss under 1%
Web Browsing
Each new website requires a DNS lookup and TCP connection, both affected by latency. High ping adds a noticeable delay before pages start loading, even if your download speed is fast. This is why switching to a faster DNS server (like 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8) can make browsing feel significantly faster.
How to Reduce Ping and Jitter
- Use Ethernet instead of WiFi: WiFi adds 5–25 ms of latency and significant jitter. A wired connection is the single biggest improvement for ping and jitter.
- Choose closer servers: Physical distance directly increases latency. Choose game servers, CDNs, and services in your region.
- Close background applications: Cloud syncs, updates, and streaming consume bandwidth and create network congestion, increasing both ping and jitter.
- Enable QoS on your router: Quality of Service prioritizes gaming and call traffic over background downloads.
- Upgrade to fiber: Fiber optic connections have inherently lower latency than cable, DSL, or satellite.
- Restart your router: Clears congested buffers and resets the connection to your ISP.
- Switch DNS servers: Faster DNS reduces the delay before connections begin. Try Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or Google (8.8.8.8).
- Avoid peak hours: Network congestion during evening hours (7–11 PM) increases latency for cable and DSL connections.
How to Test Your Ping and Jitter
The easiest way to test these metrics is with an online speed test. SwiftNetScan measures ping and jitter alongside download and upload speeds, giving you a complete picture of your connection quality.
For more detailed diagnostics, you can use the ping command in your terminal or command prompt to test latency to specific servers. Running ping google.com -c 50 sends 50 packets and reports average latency and packet loss.
Conclusion
Ping, latency, and jitter are crucial metrics that determine the quality of your internet experience beyond raw speed. Understanding these metrics helps you diagnose connection problems, choose the right equipment and settings, and ensure your internet meets the demands of gaming, video calls, and other real-time applications.
Check your ping and jitter now with a free speed test.