Test Your Rig · Input Latency

Input latency test

The reaction test measures you; this one measures the machine. Every key press or click is timestamped by the operating system — here you can see how long it takes from that timestamp to the page receiving the event, and to the next rendered frame. High or spiky numbers mean a loaded system is sitting between your hand and the screen.

Click here, then mash keys or clicks
Each press measures OS-timestamp → event → next frame. Collect 20+ samples for stable medians.
Last · to event
queue + dispatch
Last · to frame
next rAF after the event
Median to frame
0 samples
Best / worst
to frame
Audio output latency
AudioContext, this device

What this can and can't measure

A web page sees your input at the moment the OS hands it over with a timestamp. From there, to event is the queueing and dispatch delay inside the OS and browser, and to frame adds the wait for the next render tick — on a 60 Hz refresh that alone averages ~8 ms, which is why gaming at 120 Hz+ feels snappier even at the same FPS.

What no page can see: the keyboard's matrix scan and debounce (1–10 ms), USB/Bluetooth polling (0.1–8 ms), and your display's processing and pixel response (1–20 ms). The true button-to-photon latency is this measurement plus those stages — so treat the numbers here as the software share of your input lag, the part that changes with system load, browser, and refresh rate.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the same as my monitor's input lag?

No — this measures OS timestamp to rendered frame. It can't see keyboard scan time, USB polling, or pixel response; button-to-photon is this plus those hardware stages.

What is a good key-to-frame latency?

On a healthy machine at 60 Hz, most presses land within a frame or two: roughly 5–25 ms. Consistently higher, or big spikes, usually means a loaded CPU or a power-saving browser mode.

Why does the reaction time test show much bigger numbers?

Reaction time measures you — typically 200–300 ms. This measures the machine's share, a small fraction of that.

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