Statistics · Reaction Time
Reaction Time statistics
The whole distribution, where the numbers come from, and a calculator that places your own score inside it.
Where your score falls
Type a number to place it in the distribution below.
The percentile bands
| Band | Score | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Top 1% | ≤ 150 ms | 99th |
| Top 5% | ≤ 175 ms | 95th |
| Top 15% | ≤ 200 ms | 85th |
| Top 30% | ≤ 225 ms | 70th |
| Median | ≤ 273 ms | 50th |
| Bottom 25% | ≤ 320 ms | 25th |
| Bottom 10% | ≤ 400 ms | 10th |
Bands anchored on Human Benchmark’s published median of 273 ms across more than 81 million recorded clicks.
Reaction time by age
| Age | Typical range | What is happening |
|---|---|---|
| 10–17 | 250–290 ms | Still developing, and the spread between individuals is wide |
| 18–24 | 240–260 ms | The fastest band of the lifespan |
| 25–34 | 250–270 ms | Past the peak, but the decline is barely measurable |
| 35–44 | 260–290 ms | Small and steady slowing |
| 45–54 | 280–310 ms | The decline becomes easy to detect |
| 55–64 | 300–350 ms | Slowing accelerates |
| 65+ | 330–380 ms | Roughly 30–50% slower than the peak band |
Ranges follow the cohort literature on processing speed, which places the peak near age 24 and finds the decline steepening after 50.
Laboratory studies use dedicated hardware. A web test inherits whatever monitor and mouse the participant owns, which adds tens of milliseconds of noise that has nothing to do with age.
Why your device matters
- A mouse click and a key press differ by a few milliseconds in both directions depending on the switch, the debounce and the polling rate, which is why the two are ranked separately.
- Touchscreens are genuinely slower: the panel samples on its own schedule and the finger travels further. Expect 50 to 120 ms more than the same person on a mouse.
- Refresh rate sets a floor. A 60 Hz panel adds up to 16.7 ms of quantisation, a 144 Hz panel up to 6.9 ms, and display processing adds more on top — some televisions add over 100 ms in their default picture mode.
How we will replace these numbers
The bands above come from other people’s published datasets, named under each table. They are the honest option while this site is new: quoting a percentile from a handful of our own samples would be worse than quoting someone else’s from millions.
Once a test holds more than a thousand clean samples of its own, the percentile switches to our data and starts showing the sample size next to it. Runs that lost focus or looked automated never enter that pool — see how we measure.
Questions
What is the average reaction time score?
The median is 273 ms. Half of players score better than that and half score worse.
What is a good reaction time?
The median adult scores around 273 ms on a mouse. Under 200 ms puts you in the top 15%, under 175 ms in the top 5%, and under 150 ms in the top 1%. Controlled measurements bottom out near 100 ms for a visual signal, so a score well below that is a lucky guess that happened to land rather than a reaction.
Why is my reaction time slower here than on other sites?
Most sites start their clock when their JavaScript changes the colour. The browser does not show that change until the next frame is painted, one to two frames later. We start the clock at the painted frame, which is honest and typically reads 8 to 30 ms slower than sites that do not.
Does my monitor affect the result?
Yes, substantially. Refresh rate adds up to half a frame of quantisation, and display processing adds more — some televisions add over 100 ms in their default picture mode. Wireless mice and keyboards add a few milliseconds on top. We show the uncertainty we can measure so you know how much of your number is you.