Mouse Polling Rate Test — What Your Browser Actually Receives
Polling rate is how often a mouse reports its position to the computer — 125, 500 or 1000 times per second on most gaming mice. This page measures how many of those reports actually reach the browser as pointer events, and shows the intervals between them.
Quick answer: Move the mouse in fast circles for a few seconds: the readout shows the measured event rate in hertz and the gaps between reports. Browsers coalesce and cap movement events, so treat the number as a lower bound — a mouse that reports only a few dozen hertz here is worth checking in the vendor software.
Press start, then move the mouse quickly in circles over this pad for six seconds. Hold the mouse button down as you move if your system reports more events that way.
| What it measures | Pointer events per second received by the browser (its own sampling), not the sensor's true report rate |
|---|---|
| Common rates | 125 Hz standard, 500 Hz and 1000 Hz gaming; some modern mice report 4000 Hz and above |
| Browser limits | Chrome, Edge and Firefox often coalesce movement events and cap the rate per animation frame |
| Better tool for a true reading | Your mouse vendor's utility, which talks to the device directly |
Why the browser cannot give you the true polling rate
The operating system merges mouse reports before the browser sees them, and browsers then throttle movement events to keep pages responsive — often to one update per animation frame (60–240 per second). Everything on this page is therefore a measurement of what reaches the page, not of the sensor. It is still useful as a smoke test: a 1000 Hz mouse should report clearly more events than a 125 Hz one, and a wireless mouse with a failing link will show irregular gaps.
How to use the numbers
Watch the average hertz and the longest gap. A steady rate with no long gaps means input is flowing; occasional gaps of tens of milliseconds usually mean wireless interference, a busy USB bus, or the operating system waking the device from a power-saving state. If your aim stutters in games but the gaps look clean here, the problem is elsewhere — the operating system's own polling and your in-game sensitivity settings are the next things to check.
When to use this test
- Checking whether a new mouse is actually reporting more often than a 125 Hz office mouse
- Diagnosing stutter: if the reported gap between events spikes, the wireless link may be dropping
- Confirming that a mouse still works after a firmware update or a receiver change
- Understanding why a high polling rate does not always feel smoother in a browser game