Your keyboard is reporting its key state every 1ms. This is the standard polling rate for mid-range and above gaming keyboards over USB. At 1000Hz, the maximum polling delay added to any keypress is 1ms — effectively zero in real-world terms.
Your keyboard polls every 2ms. Most quality gaming keyboards default to 500Hz. The real-world difference between 500Hz and 1000Hz is 1ms — measurable in controlled lab conditions but imperceptible during normal play. 500Hz is sufficient for any gaming scenario.
Your keyboard reports every 8ms. Budget keyboards, most wireless keyboards on Bluetooth, and many office keyboards poll at 125Hz. The maximum polling delay is 8ms — the full 7ms gap between 125Hz and 1000Hz is real and measurable. For competitive gaming, a 1000Hz keyboard removes that gap. For typing and casual gaming, 125Hz is unnoticeable.
Your keyboard is polling slower than the 125Hz standard. This occasionally happens on Bluetooth connections with interference or on very old USB hubs. If you’re seeing this on a wired connection, try a direct USB port on your motherboard rather than a USB hub, and test again.
Some keyboards advertise 1000Hz but poll at 500Hz until enabled via software. Check the manufacturer’s software — Razer Synapse, Logitech G Hub, SteelSeries Engine — for a polling rate setting. Switch it to 1000Hz and retest.
What is keyboard polling rate and why does it matter?
Keyboard polling rate is how often your keyboard sends its current key state to your computer per second. The number is measured in Hertz (Hz) — cycles per second.
At 125Hz, the keyboard checks in with your PC every 8ms. If you press a key 1ms after the last poll, your PC won’t register that keypress for another 7ms. That 7ms gap is the maximum polling delay — the worst-case added latency from the polling interval alone.
At 1000Hz, the keyboard checks in every 1ms. The maximum added latency drops to 1ms. For every keypress, the worst-case delay difference between a 125Hz and a 1000Hz keyboard is exactly 7ms.
Does 7ms matter? For typing, document work, and casual gaming — no. 7ms is below the threshold of human perception in most tasks. For competitive gaming at high frame rates — where players react to sub-100ms events — that 7ms is a real, measurable advantage, even if the margin is small.
Why browsers can’t measure polling rate perfectly
This tool reads keydown events fired by the browser. At high polling rates, browsers throttle how often they fire key repeat events — most browsers cap key repeat at approximately 125Hz regardless of the keyboard’s actual polling rate. That’s a browser limitation, not a flaw in the keyboard.
What this means for your result: The tool measures the effective polling rate as seen by the browser, not the hardware polling rate as seen by the USB controller. For most keyboards at 125Hz and 500Hz, the readings are accurate. For 1000Hz keyboards, browsers may report 125–250Hz rather than 1000Hz due to this cap.
The most accurate way to measure 1000Hz polling: Use a dedicated USB HID analyzer, or check your keyboard’s USB descriptor directly. For browser-based comparison testing — comparing one keyboard against another under identical conditions — this tool gives consistent, repeatable results.
This limitation is documented honestly here because the browser ceiling is real and affects every browser-based polling rate tester equally — not just this one.
Polling rate vs. latency — what’s the actual relationship?
Polling rate is one input in the total keyboard latency equation. It’s not the only one.
| Factor | Contribution to latency |
|---|---|
| Polling rate at 1000Hz | 0–1ms (maximum interval) |
| Polling rate at 500Hz | 0–2ms |
| Polling rate at 125Hz | 0–8ms |
| Switch actuation depth (speed vs. standard) | 1–3ms difference |
| USB processing and OS input handling | 1–3ms |
| Browser event processing | 1–5ms |
| Human reaction time (visual stimulus) | 150–250ms average |
Human reaction time dominates the total. Polling rate contributes a maximum of 7ms difference between the worst and best keyboard options. That 7ms is worth optimizing if you’re competitive, but it won’t turn a 250ms reactor into a 150ms one.
Combine the polling rate test with the keyboard latency test to measure your full end-to-end response time, and the N-key rollover test to confirm your keyboard handles simultaneous keypresses correctly alongside its polling performance.
Does wireless polling rate differ from wired?
Yes — significantly on Bluetooth, minimally on 2.4GHz proprietary wireless.
Bluetooth: The Bluetooth HID specification doesn’t define a fixed polling rate. Most Bluetooth keyboards poll at 125Hz or lower, with variable latency depending on connection quality and interference from nearby 2.4GHz devices. Bluetooth polling rate is inherently less consistent than wired — the Hz reading in this tool fluctuates more on Bluetooth than on USB.
Proprietary 2.4GHz wireless (Logitech LIGHTSPEED, Razer HyperSpeed, SteelSeries Quantum 2.0): These protocols achieve 1000Hz polling over their dedicated 2.4GHz dongle, matching wired USB performance. The polling rate test on these keyboards shows readings comparable to wired at 1000Hz.
USB wired: Most stable and consistent. The Hz reading holds steady throughout the test. This is the baseline to compare all other connection types against.
1000Hz is the standard for gaming keyboards and adds only 1ms of maximum polling delay per keypress. 500Hz adds 2ms — both are sufficient for any competitive gaming scenario. 125Hz adds up to 8ms, which is measurable but only relevant if you’re optimizing every millisecond. For most players, 500Hz or 1000Hz makes no perceptible difference. For typing and office work, 125Hz is indistinguishable from 1000Hz.
Browsers throttle key repeat events to approximately 125Hz regardless of the keyboard’s hardware polling rate. This is a browser-level limitation that affects every browser-based polling rate tester. Your keyboard is likely polling at 1000Hz at the hardware level — the browser is just not firing events fast enough to reflect it. Use a dedicated USB HID analyzer for hardware-accurate 1000Hz readings.
Yes. Bluetooth keyboards poll inconsistently, typically between 60–125Hz with variable latency spikes. Proprietary 2.4GHz wireless keyboards from major gaming brands achieve 1000Hz polling comparable to wired USB. Standard Bluetooth will always show lower and less stable readings in the polling rate test than USB or 2.4GHz proprietary wireless.
Some keyboards allow polling rate adjustment through their manufacturer’s software — Razer Synapse, Logitech G Hub, SteelSeries Engine, and similar. Check the software for a “polling rate” or “report rate” setting. Not all keyboards support this. Budget keyboards with fixed 125Hz polling have no software override. After changing the setting, press Reset and rerun this test to confirm the change took effect.