How sharp are you today?
Wait for green, tap as fast as you can. Five rounds, thirty seconds, your number against the typical adult range.
Where 200 to 350 ms comes from
The reference numbers. 1,469 adults aged 18 to 65 did the same wait-then-press task under lab conditions. The average came out at 231 ms, with most people within about 27 ms of it, and it slowed by roughly half a millisecond for every year of age. So a 60 year old is expected to read about 20 ms slower than a 20 year old, which is far less than one bad night of sleep costs either of them. Woods et al, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2015.
The half nobody quotes: some of your score is your device. The same study measured its own hardware and found 11 ms going out to the screen and 7 ms coming back from the mouse. Strip those and the true figure was 213 ms, not 231. A browser tap on a phone adds more delay than a wired lab mouse does, and the test above cannot see it or subtract it.
Which is why this is a tracker, not a measurement. Your score against a stranger's means little. Your score this week against your own score last month, on the same phone, is the comparison worth making, and it is sleep, alcohol the night before and some medicines that move it most.
Every figure on this site names where it came from. How we check.
Common questions
What is a good reaction time?
Most adults land between 200 and 350 milliseconds on a simple tap test like this one. Under 250 is quick. Elite gamers and athletes reach the 150s, partly through practice and partly through youth; reaction time naturally slows a few milliseconds per decade from the twenties on.
What slows reaction time?
Short sleep is the big everyday one: a bad night can slow you as much as the legal alcohol limit does. Alcohol itself, some medicines including sedatives and antihistamines, low blood sugar, and plain distraction all add milliseconds. Your device adds its own delay too, so compare against your own numbers on the same device.
Can I improve my reaction time?
Somewhat, and mostly by fixing the slowers: sleep 7 to 9 hours, move regularly, and treat vision or hearing problems. Regular aerobic exercise is the single best-evidenced brain-speed habit at every age. Practice on a specific task improves that task; it does not make your whole brain faster.
Do brain training apps and supplements work?
Brain games make you better at brain games; the improvement mostly does not transfer to daily life in trials. Brain supplements have failed their tests repeatedly. Exercise, sleep, blood pressure control, hearing care and staying socially engaged are the interventions with real evidence.