What is jitter in internet speed?
Jitter is how much your ping changes from one message to the next, measured in milliseconds. A steady ping is better than a low ping that jumps around. Under 15 ms suits gaming, and under 30 ms suits video calls.
What it is
Imagine four pings in a row. If they are 20, 22, 21 and 23 ms, the connection is steady and the jitter is tiny. If they are 20, 80, 25 and 120 ms, the average might look acceptable, but the connection is erratic and the jitter is high.
Why it matters
Calls and games depend on a steady stream of small messages arriving on time and in order. Apps hide small variations with a short buffer. When the variation is larger than the buffer, the effect is noticeable: audio turns robotic or skips, video freezes, and a game character jumps. Microsoft's Teams guidance says choppy audio, with static or robotic voices, could be jitter or packet loss.
What is a good value
| Jitter | What it means |
|---|---|
| Under 15 ms | Good for everything, including fast online games. |
| 15 to 30 ms | Fine for video calls. Games may feel slightly uneven. |
| Over 30 ms | Calls may break up and games feel erratic. |
These are rough guidelines, not an official standard. They match the SpeedUp verdicts, which look for jitter under 15 ms for gaming and under 30 ms for calls.
Jitter, ping and packet loss are different
- Ping is how long a message takes to travel there and back.
- Jitter is how much that time varies.
- Packet loss is the share of messages that never arrive.
SpeedUp measures ping and jitter, but not packet loss. If a call breaks up while your jitter looks fine, packet loss, often from weak Wi-Fi, may be involved.
What causes jitter
- Wi-Fi interference, walls and distance from the router.
- A busy connection with bufferbloat, because messages wait in a line of changing length.
- Mobile networks, especially when you are moving or the signal is weak.
- An overloaded or old router.
- A VPN or relay with a long route.
How to reduce it
- Use a cable, or move closer to the router.
- Fix bufferbloat if your grade is C or D.
- Pause large downloads and uploads during calls and games.
- Reduce Wi-Fi interference. See how to fix slow Wi-Fi.
- Restart the router and update its firmware.