Polling Rate Test

A polling rate test counts how many position reports your mouse sends to the computer each second, measured in hertz (Hz). To run the test above, move the mouse in fast circles inside the box for a few seconds and read the Hz figure: a mouse set to 1000 Hz should show an average close to 1000.

Use it to confirm that a setting you chose in your mouse software actually took effect, to compare wired and wireless modes, or to find out what an unlabelled mouse really does.

How to use the polling rate tester

1. Put the cursor inside the box that says Move the mouse quickly here.
2. Move the mouse in fast, continuous circles for three to five seconds. Do not stop or change direction sharply.
3. Read the large number and the line under it, Closest standard setting.
4. Press Reset before testing a different setting, mode, or mouse so the old readings do not mix into the new average.

You do not need to click anything. The bars along the bottom of the box show the recent readings, so you can see at a glance whether the rate is steady or jumping around.

What the numbers mean

The test counts movement reports in windows of a quarter of a second and converts each window to Hz.

Readout	What it tells you
Current	The rate during the most recent quarter second. It moves around as your hand speed changes.
Average	The mean of every reading since you started or last pressed Reset. Moments when the mouse is almost still are left out.
Peak	The highest single reading so far.
Closest standard setting	The standard polling rate nearest to your average: 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 or 8000 Hz.

Closest standard setting is the quickest answer to "what is my mouse set to". Peak shows what the mouse can reach in a good moment, and Average shows what it sustains. A healthy result has all three close together.

Polling rate in Hz and report interval in milliseconds

Polling rate and report interval are two ways of stating the same thing. Divide 1000 by the rate in Hz to get the time between reports in milliseconds.

Polling rate	Time between reports	Where you typically find it
125 Hz	8 ms	Office mice, many Bluetooth connections
250 Hz	4 ms	Selectable step on some mice
500 Hz	2 ms	Selectable step, some wireless mice
1000 Hz	1 ms	Standard on most gaming mice
2000 Hz	0.5 ms	High polling rate gaming mice
4000 Hz	0.25 ms	High polling rate gaming mice
8000 Hz	0.125 ms	High polling rate gaming mice

The interval is the longest a movement can wait before the computer hears about it. At 125 Hz a movement can sit for up to 8 ms; at 1000 Hz, at most 1 ms. That waiting time adds to every other delay in the chain, from the game engine to the monitor.

Why the reading is lower than, or bounces around, the nominal rate

Seeing 940 or 985 instead of a flat 1000 does not mean your mouse is broken. Three things pull a browser measurement away from the nominal figure.

A mouse only reports movement. The polling rate is a ceiling, not a constant stream. If the sensor has detected no motion since the last report, there is nothing to send, and that slot stays empty.

The measurement happens far from the mouse. Reports pass through the USB controller, the operating system, and the browser before a web page can count them. Each layer can batch or delay events slightly, and the timing of the counting window itself is not perfect. A reading can come in a little under or occasionally a little over the true rate.

Your computer is busy. A heavy background task, a browser tab doing a lot of work, or a power saving CPU mode can cause events to arrive late or get dropped. Close demanding programs and test again if the numbers look erratic.

In practice, treat an average within roughly 10 percent of a standard value as that value. What you should take seriously is a result that sits at a different step entirely, such as a steady 500 on a mouse you set to 1000.

Browsers also differ in how much raw mouse data they hand to a web page. If your reading seems capped near your monitor's refresh rate, for example around 60 or 144, the browser is probably delivering one update per screen frame. Try again in a current version of Chrome or Edge.

Why moving slowly gives a low reading

Sensors measure movement in counts, and a report is only sent when at least one count has accumulated. Move slowly and the sensor crosses a count boundary less often than the polling interval comes around, so many intervals pass with nothing to send.

A rough example: at 800 DPI, moving one inch per second produces about 800 counts per second. Even in the best case that cannot fill 1000 report slots per second, and it has no chance of filling 8000. This is why the note under the test tells you to keep the motion fast and continuous.

The same effect is stronger at low DPI and at very high polling rates. To get a clean reading on a 4000 or 8000 Hz mouse, raise the DPI to 1600 or more for the duration of the test and make large, quick circles. You can check what your sensor really delivers with the DPI test.

Wireless mice and power saving modes

Connection type has a large effect on what you will measure.

• 2.4 GHz dongle. Gaming mice with a dedicated receiver commonly run at 1000 Hz, and some models go higher with a special receiver. Interference lowers the effective rate, so plug the dongle into a port close to the mouse, or use the extension cable if one came in the box.
• Bluetooth. Bluetooth favours battery life over speed and usually reports at around 125 Hz, sometimes less. If your dual-mode mouse reads near 125, check which mode it is in.
• Battery saving modes. Many wireless mice lower the polling rate in an eco mode or when the battery is low, and some slow down after a few seconds of inactivity until they wake up. The first moments of movement may read lower than the rest.
• Wired mode. Some wireless mice only reach their top rate over the cable or with a specific receiver. The manual for your model will say which.

Test each mode separately and press Reset in between. Differences between modes are often larger than people expect.

Does polling rate matter?

Yes, but the returns shrink quickly as the number climbs.

The step from 125 Hz to 1000 Hz is the one that counts. At 125 Hz the cursor position is updated every 8 ms, which is about one update per frame on a 120 Hz monitor and less than one per frame on anything faster. Fast movements can look slightly stepped. At 1000 Hz several reports arrive within every frame, so motion is smooth and the newest position is never more than 1 ms old.

From 1000 Hz to 8000 Hz you save at most 0.875 ms per report. Some players on 240 Hz and faster monitors say they notice smoother tracking; many do not. The cost is real, though: the computer has to process up to eight times as many input events, and some games stutter or lose frames when flooded with them.

For work that is not time-critical, such as documents, spreadsheets, and browsing, polling rate has no practical effect.

What is a good polling rate?

Use this as a starting point and adjust to your hardware.

Use	Suggested polling rate	Why
Office work, browsing	125 to 500 Hz	Smooth enough, and easy on wireless battery life
General gaming	1000 Hz	1 ms reports, supported by nearly every game and system
Competitive shooters on a 240 Hz or faster monitor	1000 Hz, or 2000 to 4000 Hz if your system stays stable	Small extra smoothness at the cost of CPU load
Older or CPU-limited computers	500 to 1000 Hz	Avoids stutter from processing too many input events

If a higher setting makes a game stutter, drop back one step. A stable 1000 Hz beats an unstable 4000 Hz every time.

What to do if the result looks wrong

Work through these in order when the reading does not match your setting.

1. Move faster and try again. Most low readings are a hand speed problem. Large, quick circles for five seconds, then check Average.
2. Confirm the setting was saved. Open your mouse software, check the polling rate on the active profile, and make sure it was written to the mouse. Some mice also have a switch or button combination that overrides the software.
3. Change the USB port. Plug the mouse or its receiver directly into a port on the computer instead of a hub, keyboard pass-through, or monitor. Very high polling rates in particular need a direct connection.
4. Check the connection mode. Switch from Bluetooth to the 2.4 GHz receiver or the cable, and turn off any battery saving mode.
5. Reduce system load. Close heavy programs, switch your computer to a high performance power plan, and rerun the test.
6. Try another browser. If the reading tracks your monitor's refresh rate, the browser is limiting what the page can see.

If the mouse still measures far below its setting on a second computer, the problem is in the mouse, its cable, or its receiver.

Related tests

Polling rate is only one part of how a mouse feels. Use the DPI test to measure the true resolution of your sensor, then try the mouse accuracy test to see how your settings hold up when you are clicking targets. If the wheel is the part giving you trouble, the scroll test counts every step and flags reversals.

For a quick check of every button, the wheel, and polling rate on one screen, run the full mouse test on the home page.