0%
No Packet Loss
Every packet sent during the test came back. This is the best possible result and means reliability is not the source of any connection issues you might be experiencing.
Packet Loss Test
Free Packet Loss Test
Check how many network packets are being lost between your device and Pingvero’s test server. Get a clear packet loss percentage and connection quality result in seconds.
Send test packets and measure how many are lost during the test.
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Packet Loss
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Packets Sent
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Packets Received
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Packets Lost
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Sending test packets…
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Unable to complete the packet loss test. Please check your connection and try again.
This test sends a batch of small HTTPS requests from your browser to Pingvero’s server, one at a time, and counts how many fail or don’t complete within a short time limit. Because TCP automatically retransmits lost packets, this measures the application-layer request failure rate rather than raw packet loss — browsers cannot send true ICMP ping packets either way — but a high rate here still points to a degraded, unreliable connection. Average latency: — ms · Test duration: — s. Results can vary with your network, device, current congestion and the test server. See our Methodology page for how every Pingvero tool measures your connection.
What Do My Results Mean?
Packet Loss Test Results
Packet loss is reported as a percentage: the share of packets sent that never made it back. Here is roughly what different levels tend to mean in practice.
Low
Low Packet Loss
A very small share of packets did not arrive. This is common and usually unnoticeable for browsing and streaming, though sensitive uses like calls or competitive games can occasionally register a brief stutter.
Moderate
Moderate Packet Loss
A noticeable share of packets are being dropped. Video calls may freeze briefly, streams can stutter and online games may feel less responsive, even if ping alone looks normal.
High
High / Severe Packet Loss
A large share of packets never arrive. Real-time applications are likely to be significantly affected — expect dropped calls, frozen video and games that feel unplayable. If this persists across several tests, contact your ISP.
These bands are a general guide, not a fixed industry standard — what feels acceptable still depends on what you are doing online and how the loss is distributed over time.
The Basics
What Is Packet Loss?
Every time you load a page, join a call or play an online game, your data is broken into small pieces called packets and sent across the network to their destination, where they are put back together. Packet loss is what happens when one or more of those packets never arrive — they are dropped somewhere along the route and simply do not make it, rather than arriving late.
Packets go missing for ordinary, mostly unavoidable reasons: a congested link, a router that is briefly overloaded, a weak WiFi signal, or a piece of network hardware discarding traffic when it runs out of capacity. A small amount of packet loss happens on almost every network from time to time; the question is how much, and how often.
Packet loss is easy to confuse with the other numbers a connection test reports, but each measures something different:
- Packet loss vs. latency: latency (or ping) is how long a packet takes to make a round trip. Packet loss is whether it arrives at all — a connection can have low latency and still lose packets.
- Packet loss vs. jitter: jitter is how much latency varies from one packet to the next. A connection can be perfectly consistent (low jitter) while still dropping some packets entirely.
- Packet loss vs. speed: download and upload speed describe how much data your connection can move per second. Packet loss describes reliability — a fast connection can still drop packets, and a slower one can be perfectly reliable.
Because these are independent measurements, a full picture of a connection usually needs more than one test. If ping and speed both look fine but something still feels wrong — choppy calls, games that stutter, video that freezes — packet loss is often the missing piece. Our What Is Packet Loss? guide goes into more detail on how it is measured and what causes it.
Behind The Numbers
What Causes Packet Loss?
Packet loss can come from almost anywhere along the path between your device and the server. These are the most common contributors.
WiFi interference & weak signal
Neighboring networks, thick walls, distance from the router and other wireless devices can all cause a wireless link to drop packets.
Network congestion
When a link is carrying more traffic than it can handle, the router at that point starts discarding packets rather than queuing them indefinitely.
An overloaded or aging router
A router running near its limits, or older hardware handling more traffic than it was designed for, can drop packets under load.
Faulty hardware or cables
A damaged Ethernet cable, a failing network card or a loose connection can corrupt or drop packets before they even leave your network.
ISP or upstream network issues
Problems further along your provider’s network — congestion, maintenance or routing issues — are outside your home network but still show up as packet loss.
Unstable connections at peak times
Shared infrastructure, such as neighborhood WiFi or ISP links, can become less reliable when many people are online at the same time.
Overloaded destination servers
A server that is receiving more requests than it can process may drop some connections, which looks the same as packet loss from your side.
Physical obstructions
Walls, floors and large appliances weaken wireless signal, increasing the chance that packets are corrupted or lost on the way.
No single cause is always to blame — the test above tells you how much loss there is, not which of these is responsible on your network.
Online Gaming
Packet Loss for Gaming
Online games, especially fast-paced and competitive titles, depend on a steady stream of small packets to keep your view of the game in sync with everyone else’s. Voice chat and real-time multiplayer are just as sensitive: both need data to arrive continuously, not just quickly. Packet loss breaks that stream, and games tend to show it more obviously than almost any other application.
Typical symptoms of packet loss during gaming include:
- Rubber-banding — your character snaps back to an earlier position as the game corrects for missing updates.
- Lag spikes — sudden, brief freezes even when your ping looks normal the rest of the time.
- Disconnected players — enough lost packets in a row can look like a dropped connection to the game server.
- Delayed actions — shots, moves or inputs that register late, or seemingly not at all.
- Voice interruptions — missing audio packets cut words or whole phrases out of team voice chat.
None of these symptoms guarantee packet loss is the cause — high ping or high jitter can produce similar effects. Running a Ping Test and a Jitter Test alongside this one, and comparing all three against a Latency Test, is the most reliable way to narrow down what is actually going wrong.
Wireless Connections
Packet Loss on WiFi
Packet loss is more common on WiFi than on a wired connection, simply because a wireless signal has more that can go wrong on the way. Distance from the router weakens the signal, walls and obstacles absorb and reflect it, and interference from neighboring networks, Bluetooth devices and household electronics can all corrupt or delay packets enough that they are dropped.
A crowded WiFi channel — one shared with many nearby networks — leaves less clean airtime for your own traffic, which raises the chance of collisions and lost packets. Router placement matters too: a central, open position generally performs far better than a router tucked away in a corner or cabinet. Where your device supports it, switching between the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands is worth testing — 2.4 GHz reaches further through walls, while 5 GHz is usually cleaner and faster at short range but loses signal quickly with distance.
If packet loss only appears on WiFi and disappears over a wired connection, the wireless link itself is almost certainly the source. Comparing this test over WiFi with the same test on Ethernet, or running a WiFi Speed Test from the same spot, will usually confirm it.
Fix It
How to Fix Packet Loss
None of these guarantee a specific result, but they address the most common causes of dropped packets, roughly in the order worth trying.
Run the test again — a single high result can just be a brief, temporary spike.
Move closer to the router, or test near it, to rule out a weak WiFi signal.
Try a wired Ethernet connection to see whether WiFi itself is the source.
Restart your router, modem and any other network equipment in the path.
Check whether other devices on your network are active and using bandwidth.
Reduce network congestion by pausing large downloads, uploads or backups.
Inspect cables and connections for damage or a loose fit.
Compare results at different times of day to see if the issue is tied to peak usage.
Contact your ISP if high packet loss persists across several tests and devices.
Know The Difference
Packet Loss vs Ping vs Latency vs Jitter
Four related but distinct measurements. Running all of them gives a much clearer picture than any single one on its own.
| Metric | What it measures | What a problem can cause |
|---|---|---|
| Packet Loss | The share of packets sent that never arrive. | Choppy calls, frozen video, rubber-banding and lag spikes in games. |
| Ping | The round-trip time for a packet to reach a server and come back. | A noticeable delay between an action and its effect, especially in games and calls. |
| Latency | The delay between sending a request and getting a response — closely related to ping. | Pages, calls and remote sessions that feel slow to respond, even with fast download speeds. |
| Jitter | How much latency varies from one packet to the next, rather than its average value. | Robotic-sounding calls, stuttering video and unpredictable, inconsistent lag in games. |
FAQ
Packet Loss Test FAQ
Short answers to the questions people ask most about testing and fixing packet loss.
What is a packet loss test?
A packet loss test sends a series of small requests to a test server and measures how many complete successfully. The percentage that never arrive is your packet loss — a measure of how reliably your connection delivers data, separate from how fast or how responsive it is.
How do I test packet loss?
Run the Packet Loss Test above. It sends a batch of requests from your browser to Pingvero’s server and reports how many were lost, along with the average latency of the ones that made it through. No installation or account is required.
What is a good packet loss percentage?
As a general guide, 0% is ideal, up to around 1% is usually unnoticeable, and anything above 1–2% starts to become noticeable in calls, streams and games. These are indicative ranges, not a fixed industry standard — what counts as acceptable still depends on what you are doing online.
Is 1% packet loss bad?
Not necessarily. 1% packet loss is low and often goes unnoticed for browsing, streaming or downloads, though sensitive real-time uses such as competitive gaming or voice calls can occasionally show a small stutter at that level.
Why do I have packet loss on WiFi?
WiFi is more exposed to packet loss than a wired connection because it depends on signal strength, which is affected by distance from the router, walls and interference from other networks or devices. Run a WiFi Speed Test to see whether the wireless leg of your connection is the cause.
Can packet loss cause lag?
Yes. When a packet is lost, the receiving application either has to wait for it to be resent or drops that piece of data, which shows up as lag, stutter or a brief freeze — even if ping and download speed both look normal.
Can packet loss affect gaming?
Yes, often more than ping does. Online games rely on a steady stream of small packets to keep the game state in sync, so lost packets can cause rubber-banding, delayed actions or players briefly disconnecting, sometimes at loss levels that would go unnoticed while browsing.
How can I fix packet loss?
Start by running the test again to confirm the result, then try a wired Ethernet connection, restart your router and other network equipment, and check whether other devices on the network are causing congestion. See our guide to packet loss for the full troubleshooting steps.
What causes packet loss?
Common causes include WiFi interference or a weak signal, network congestion, an overloaded or aging router, faulty cables or hardware, and issues further along your ISP’s network. It can also be temporary, caused by a busy moment on the route to the server.
Is 0% packet loss good?
Yes. 0% packet loss means every request in the test reached the server and came back successfully — the best possible result for this test, and a sign that reliability is not the source of any connection problems you might be experiencing.
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