Guides
What the numbers mean, what moves them, and what to ignore.
Tests
- Reflex test Five taps, one number in milliseconds, corrected for the lag your screen adds.
- Audio reaction time test Turn the sound on, close your eyes if you like, and tap the moment you hear the tone.
- Choice reaction time test Tap on TAP. Do nothing on HOLD. Tapping a hold counts as a false start.
- Aim trainer Five targets, random positions. The clock stops when you hit the target, not when you click.
Guides
- How the measurement works Every online reaction test measures your hardware as well as you. This one says how much.
- Average reaction time The short answer is about a quarter of a second. The useful answer has conditions attached.
- What counts as a good reaction time Good is relative to the task. A goalkeeper and a driver need different things from the same number.
- Reaction time by age Fastest at around twenty, then roughly a millisecond a year. The shape is gentler than most people expect.
- How to improve your reaction time The honest version: you cannot train your nerves much, but almost everything else is trainable.
- Reflexes and reaction time One of these is measured in tens of milliseconds and the other in hundreds. People quote them interchangeably.
- Testing reaction time at home A ruler, a friend and a conversion table will get you within a few tens of milliseconds.
- Reaction time for gamers Your monitor, mouse and ping can cost you more milliseconds than your nervous system ever will.
- Reaction time and stopping distance At 100 km/h you travel nearly 28 metres in the second before you touch the brake.
- Reaction time in sports In most sports the winner is not the fastest reactor. They are the one who started earlier.
- Caffeine and reaction time A genuine effect, smaller than the marketing suggests and largest when you are tired.
- Sleep and reaction time Lapses, not slowness, are what sleep loss does to you — and lapses are what get people hurt.
- Alcohol and reaction time The dangerous part is not the slowing. It is being confident while slowed.
- Visual vs auditory reaction time Your ears report to your brain faster than your eyes do, and the gap is bigger than you would guess.
- Simple and choice reaction time One signal, one response is the floor. Everything you add to the decision has a price in milliseconds.