Controller Polling Rate Test

Rotate a stick and the test counts how many times per second the controller sends a new report. The big now figure is the rate over the last second, 5 s average smooths it over five seconds, and peak is the best one-second window since you started or pressed Reset. Once more than twenty reports have arrived, the Verdict panel names the nearest standard rate, 125, 250, 500 or 1000 Hz, and says what that rate normally means for your kind of controller.

Wired USB gives the true figure. Over Bluetooth most pads report less often than they can, and the browser itself can cap what the page sees, so test over a cable first and treat a Bluetooth result as a measurement of the link rather than the controller. The gamepad tester on the home page shows the same Hz reading in its status line, but only this page records the peak and the distribution of intervals.

How to run the polling rate test

Connect the controller over USB and press a button so the browser reveals it; the status line shows the pad's name, button count, axis count and a live Hz figure. Push one stick to its edge and roll it around in circles without stopping. After a second or two the three boxes fill in, the interval bars start to move, and when enough reports have been counted the verdict appears on the right.

Keep the stick moving for the whole measurement. A gamepad only sends a new report when a button or axis value changes, and the test counts those reports by watching the controller's timestamp; a stick sitting still produces nothing, and the now figure drops toward 0 Hz. Rotating a stick at the edge changes two axes every report, which is the most reliable way to keep the stream full. Pressing a button repeatedly works too but your thumb cannot keep up with a 1000 Hz pad.

Press Reset between connections. It clears the peak and the interval bars so a Bluetooth run does not inherit the peak from the USB run before it.

What is a controller's polling rate?

Polling rate is how often the controller tells the computer where every stick, trigger and button is, measured in reports per second, or hertz. A 125 Hz pad reports every 8 ms; a 1000 Hz pad reports every millisecond. Between reports the game is working from the last position it heard, so a higher rate means the game sees a stick sweep as a smoother curve and sees a button press sooner.

The figure shows the same stick movement over the same time sampled at the two rates. At 125 Hz the game receives eight positions and fills in straight lines between them; at 1000 Hz it receives forty-eight and the path is faithful. For a slow camera pan the difference is invisible. For a fast flick in a shooter or a precise input in a fighting game, the 125 Hz version can land a frame late or skip the exact position you passed through.

Polling rate is one part of latency, not the whole of it. At 125 Hz an input can wait up to 8 ms for the next report; at 1000 Hz, up to 1 ms. The rest of the delay, the radio, the operating system, the game's own input loop and the display, is measured end to end by the controller latency test, which is the right tool when the question is how the controller feels rather than how often it talks.

Common controller polling rates

The verdict rounds your peak to the nearest of these standard rates. The right-hand column is what the tool's own note says when it lands on that rate; the examples depend on firmware and operating system, so treat them as typical rather than guaranteed.

Rate	Interval	Typical for
1000 Hz	1 ms	Xbox Series over USB, DualSense over USB, most PC pads at their top setting
500 Hz	2 ms	DualSense over USB in some browsers, many 8BitDo pads
250 Hz	4 ms	Xbox over Bluetooth, DualShock 4 over USB, the default of many wireless pads
125 Hz	8 ms	Older pads, Switch Pro Controller and Joy-Con, many Bluetooth connections
60 Hz	16.7 ms	Rare on real hardware; usually means the page is throttled or the pad is idle

The tool also recognises 2000, 4000 and 8000 Hz for the few PC pads that claim rates above 1000 Hz. Whether a browser can actually see those rates depends on the operating system, so a verdict of 1000 Hz on such a pad does not necessarily mean the pad is underperforming.

How to read the interval bars

The six bars under the boxes show how many reports arrived at each spacing: 1 ms or less, 1 to 2 ms, 2 to 4 ms, 4 to 8 ms, 8 to 16 ms and 16 to 32 ms, with anything longer counted in the last bar. A healthy wired 1000 Hz pad puts almost everything in the first bar. A 250 Hz pad fills the 2 to 4 ms bar. The shape tells you more than the number.

One tall bar. The controller is reporting at a steady rate. This is what you want, whatever the rate is.

Two tall bars next to each other. The controller is alternating between two spacings, which is common on Bluetooth and usually harmless; the average lands between the two standard rates and the verdict picks the closer one.

A tall bar at the fast end plus a spread into the slow bars. Reports are being dropped or delayed. On Bluetooth that is interference or a weak adapter; on USB it is often a hub, a long passive extension cable, or a background tab stealing the page's timer. Move the adapter, plug straight into the computer, and bring the tab to the front.

Everything in the last bar. Either the stick is barely moving or the page is being throttled. Rotate faster, make sure this tab is visible, and check that no other application has exclusive control of the pad.

USB vs Bluetooth vs 2.4 GHz dongle

The same controller will give you three different numbers depending on how it connects, and the test is the quickest way to see them. Over USB you get the controller's native rate. Over Bluetooth the rate is set by the Bluetooth HID connection and the adapter, and 125 Hz or 250 Hz is normal even for a pad that does 1000 Hz wired. Over a proprietary 2.4 GHz dongle, such as the Xbox Wireless Adapter or the receivers bundled with many PC pads, the rate usually matches USB or sits one step below.

Run the test on each connection you own, pressing Reset between them, and note the peak each time. If the wireless peak is one step below USB, that is the connection working as designed. If it is two or three steps below, or the bars spread into the slow end, something in the radio path is wrong: a USB 3 port radiating next to the adapter, a metal desk between you and a laptop, or too many 2.4 GHz devices in the room.

Why the browser can show a lower rate than the controller sends

The test polls the Gamepad API from a loop that runs far faster than the screen refresh, so it is not limited to 60 or 144 readings per second. But the browser only sees what the operating system hands it. Some browsers and operating systems update the gamepad state on their own schedule, which caps the visible rate below the controller's true rate; the caveat under the verdict is there for that reason, and Chrome over USB is the combination that most often shows the full figure.

Two more things pull the number down. When the tab is in the background or hidden behind another window, the browser throttles the page and the test checks only a few times per second, so any reading taken while you were looking at another window is meaningless. And a controller in a compatibility mode, such as an 8BitDo pad in Switch or DirectInput mode, reports at that mode's rate rather than its native one; the Xbox controller test explains the modes for XInput pads.

What to do with the result

If the rate matches what the manufacturer claims, there is nothing to fix. If a wired pad reads a step below and the bars are clean, check for a hub or extension cable and look for a polling rate setting in the pad's own software, since many PC pads ship at 250 Hz by default. If a wireless pad reads low, try the dongle instead of Bluetooth, or a cable for sessions where it matters.

A controller that passes here can still fail elsewhere. The controller vibration test checks the motors, which have nothing to do with report rate, and the full button sweep on the home page gamepad tester confirms every input still registers.