How to use
- Put the cursor inside the pad and move the mouse in quick, continuous circles. Slow movement produces fewer reports and reads low — speed matters.
- Keep going for 3–5 seconds. Now is the live rate, Average smooths the run, Peak is the highest rate seen.
- Read the verdict: about 125 Hz means default or power-saving mode, 500 Hz is fine, 1000 Hz is the gaming standard, higher readings mean a high-rate mouse the browser cannot fully measure.
- Change the rate in your mouse software if needed (see below), then Reset and test again.
What polling rate is and how the test measures it
The polling rate (report rate) is how often the mouse tells the computer where it is. It is set in Hz: 125 Hz means a report every 8 ms, 500 Hz every 2 ms, 1000 Hz every 1 ms. By Razer's HyperPolling documentation, 4000 Hz is a report every 0.25 ms and 8000 Hz every 0.125 ms. A low rate does not make the cursor slower, but it adds up to a full interval of delay before a movement or click is even seen, and makes fast flicks look like a series of jumps instead of a smooth line.
The test reads pointermove events on the pad and asks each one for getCoalescedEvents(), so the raw reports the browser merged into that event are counted too. Every report is timestamped with performance.now(); the rate is the number of reports per second of continuous movement. Now is the last fraction of a second, Average covers the whole run, Peak is the best short window. During movement the mouse sends a report every interval; when the mouse stops, reporting stops, which is why you must keep moving and why a slow drift reads low.
Why the browser may read lower than your mouse is set to
Browsers do not deliver every mouse report to the page. By MDN's description of event coalescing, the browser merges multiple pointer movements into a single pointermove event to reduce the amount of event handling, typically one event per rendered frame — 60 per second on a 60 Hz screen, 144 on a 144 Hz screen. That alone would make a 1000 Hz mouse read as 60 Hz. getCoalescedEvents() gives back the un-coalesced position changes that were merged, which is how this test recovers the real rate up to roughly 1000 Hz in modern Chromium, Firefox and Safari.
Above that the picture blurs. The operating system, the USB driver and the browser all have their own batching, and a 4000 or 8000 Hz mouse frequently shows 1000–2000 Hz here even though it is reporting faster to games. So read the result as a floor: if it says about 1000 Hz, the mouse is at least at 1000 Hz. If it says about 125 Hz, that is almost certainly the mouse's real setting, because nothing in the chain adds reports.
| Reading | Interval | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ≈125 Hz | 8 ms | USB default or a power-saving mode; check the mouse software |
| ≈250 Hz | 4 ms | Low setting or Bluetooth mouse |
| ≈500 Hz | 2 ms | Fine for most games; common on older gaming mice |
| ≈1000 Hz | 1 ms | Standard gaming rate; the maximum most browsers can measure |
| 2000 Hz+ | ≤0.5 ms | High-rate mouse; browser is capping, the real rate is likely higher |
How to set 1000 Hz (or higher) in your mouse software
- Logitech G HUB: select the mouse → the DPI/sensitivity panel → Report rate → 1000 (some newer models offer more with the matching receiver).
- Razer Synapse: mouse → Performance tab → Polling rate → 1000 or higher; HyperPolling models need the HyperPolling dongle for 4000/8000 Hz.
- SteelSeries GG: mouse → Polling rate.
- Corsair iCUE, Glorious Core, Zowie (button on the underside), and most others: look for Polling rate or Report rate, often also cycled by a hardware button on the mouse.
- Wireless mice: check that the power-saving profile is not capping the rate; on Bluetooth the rate is limited by the link (usually 125–250 Hz) — use the 2.4 GHz dongle for gaming.
About going past 1000 Hz: by Razer's documentation, an 8000 Hz mouse cuts the report interval from 1 to 0.125 ms, but the PC has to process 8,000 reports a second, which some systems cannot keep up with — Razer recommends Windows 11 with the Moment 3 update for high report rates. For most players 1000 Hz is the sweet spot; 4000 Hz and above is a measurable but small gain on a fast PC and high-refresh monitor, and can lower frame rates on a weaker CPU.
Does polling rate change your reaction time?
A little, and mostly at the low end. At 125 Hz a click can wait up to 8 ms (4 ms on average) before the PC hears it; at 1000 Hz that wait is under 1 ms. So switching a mouse from 125 to 1000 Hz removes a few milliseconds from every click and, more visibly, makes aim tracking smooth instead of stepped. Going from 1000 to 8000 Hz removes at most about 0.9 ms — real, but smaller than the difference between a 60 Hz and 144 Hz monitor. If your reaction test results look slow, check the polling rate first (it is free), then the monitor.
What makes our polling rate test different
- Coalesced events are unpacked with
getCoalescedEvents(), so the reading is not stuck at your monitor's refresh rate the way a naive counter is. - Now, average and peak shown separately, so a brief pause in movement does not wreck the number.
- Honest verdict: the page tells you when the browser is the limit rather than the mouse.
- No ads on the pad, no download, no driver; works with any mouse, wired or wireless.
- Runs entirely in your browser.
Privacy: movement events are timed by the script on this page and discarded. Nothing about your mouse, movements or system is sent anywhere or stored.
FAQ
What polling rate should my mouse be on?
1000 Hz is the standard for gaming and what most gaming mice ship with. 500 Hz is fine; 125 Hz is the USB default and worth changing. Above 1000 Hz helps a little on fast PCs but costs CPU time.
My 1000 Hz mouse reads 125 Hz here — is the test wrong?
Probably not. Nothing in the browser chain adds reports, so a low reading is usually the real setting: a power-saving profile, a default profile after a driver reinstall, or a Bluetooth connection. Move the mouse fast and continuously, then check the mouse software.
My 8000 Hz mouse reads about 1000 Hz. Why?
Browsers, drivers and the OS batch reports; by MDN, browsers coalesce pointer moves and only getCoalescedEvents() exposes the merged ones, and in practice the ceiling is around 1000–2000 Hz. Treat the reading as a minimum.
Does a higher polling rate lower input lag?
Yes, by up to one report interval: 8 ms at 125 Hz, 1 ms at 1000 Hz, 0.125 ms at 8000 Hz by Razer's figures. The big jump is from 125 to 1000; beyond that the gains are sub-millisecond.
Why do I have to move the mouse fast?
The mouse only reports when it moves, and at very slow speeds some sensors skip reports with no change. Fast circles guarantee a continuous stream so the interval can be measured.
Does this work for a trackpad or a phone?
A trackpad reports through the OS at its own rate (often 90–250 Hz) and can be measured; touch on a phone reports at the screen's touch sampling rate, which is a different thing from a mouse polling rate.
