Keyboard latency: what the number means and how to test it
Keyboard latency is the delay between pressing a key and the computer acting on it. For typing it hardly matters. For gaming it does, because a slow board can cost you a fight you played correctly.
A wired keyboard usually reports in under a millisecond of travel time plus the USB polling interval. Polling rate is how often the keyboard tells the computer its state: 125 Hz means every 8 ms, 500 Hz means every 2 ms, and 1000 Hz means every 1 ms. A higher polling rate shortens the wait, but it is only one part of the total. Switch travel, debounce, and the game itself all add their own delay.
Wireless boards used to lag behind wired ones by a clear margin. That gap has closed on 2.4 GHz wireless, which now tests close to wired. Bluetooth still adds latency, often in the 10 to 20 ms range, so it is the wrong choice for competitive play even though it is fine for typing.
Test your own board instead of trusting the box. An online latency test measures the time from key press to on-screen response in your browser. Run it three times and take the middle result. Test wired and wireless side by side if your board supports both, and test again after changing the polling rate in the manufacturer’s software if it offers one. A board that tests slow in every mode has a real problem. A board that tests slow only on Bluetooth is telling you to switch modes.
Checked: November 6, 2026, against the latency test and polling rate test on keyboardtesteronline.com./
Keyboard latency test
https://keyboardtesteronline.com/keyboard-latency-test/
Keyboard polling rate test
https://keyboardtesteronline.com/keyboard-polling-rate-test/
Keyboard Tester Online
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