Facts and numbers
Average Reaction Time (With Sources)
About 273 ms in a big online test, and about 218 to 239 ms in a calibrated lab study. All figures below come from the sources listed, with dates.
The short answer
- Online (Human Benchmark): median 273 ms, mean 284 ms, from more than 81 million recorded clicks. It is a self-selected online sample and includes screen and input delay. Source read October 10, 2026.
- Lab (Woods et al., 2015): mean 230.8 ms for 1,469 adults aged 18 to 65 (about 213 ms after correcting for hardware delays), and 237.8 ms for a second group of 189 adults aged 18 to 82.
- Historical: the Woods paper notes that Francis Galton reported visual simple reaction times below 190 ms in young people in the 19th century.
Human Benchmark’s mean (284 ms) is higher than its median (273 ms). A mean is pulled up by a few very slow results more than a median is, which may be why; we use the median as the “typical” online value.
Reaction time by age group (lab data)
| Age group (years) | People | Average (ms) | Std. dev. between people (ms) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18–24 | 86 | 217.9 | 19.5 |
| 25–31 | 115 | 221.0 | 22.8 |
| 32–38 | 201 | 224.8 | 23.4 |
| 39–45 | 273 | 227.7 | 26.6 |
| 46–51 | 276 | 233.6 | 27.2 |
| 51–58 | 272 | 236.4 | 27.0 |
| 59–65 | 246 | 239.1 | 28.1 |
| All 18–65 | 1469 | 230.8 | 26.8 |
Source: Woods et al. (2015), Table 2. These are lab figures with calibrated equipment. An online test such as ours will usually show higher numbers because of screen and input delay, so do not expect to match the table exactly. The paper reports a rise of 0.55 ms per year of age in this group.
Test your own reaction time
Use the test below, and compare your average of 5 with the figures above only as a rough guide: the same person gets different numbers on a phone, a 60 Hz office monitor and a gaming monitor.
About accuracy: your browser, screen and mouse or touch screen add some milliseconds between the real moment and what the page can measure (a 60 Hz screen only redraws every 16.7 ms, and input devices add delay of their own). Your result is not a clinical measurement. It is best used to compare your own results on the same device. Details and sources
Private by design. No cookies, no account, no server. Nothing is stored unless you finish a test: then your best result is saved in this browser only (localStorage) and you can clear it above. Privacy
What changes your reaction time?
Our sources support these points: age (small average increase per year in adults), the kind of signal (a small study found sound faster than sight), and the measuring equipment (large differences between set-ups). We do not list other factors such as sleep, caffeine or practice, because we did not verify figures for them.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average reaction time?
It depends on how it is measured. Human Benchmark’s online test reports a median of 273 ms and a mean of 284 ms (81 million+ clicks). A calibrated lab study of 1,469 adults aged 18 to 65 found a mean of 230.8 ms, and about 213 ms after correcting for hardware delays (Woods et al., 2015).
Why is the online average higher than the lab average?
Online tests include delays from the screen, the browser and the mouse or touch screen. Human Benchmark says 30 ms is a typical lag for a desktop or laptop and that mobile taps tend to be a bit slower than clicks. The lab study also found that hardware and software delays can differ a lot between set-ups.
Does reaction time get slower with age?
In the lab study, yes, a little: about 0.55 ms more per year of age across 18 to 65 (Experiment 1), and the authors attribute most of the increase to slower movement output rather than slower detection of the stimulus. Individual differences are much bigger than the difference between neighbouring age groups.
Is the audio reaction time faster than visual?
A small study found so: 284 ms for a beep and 331 ms for a visual signal (14 participants, Shelton and Kumar, 2010). See the audio reaction test for details and caveats.
Are there figures for men and women or for children?
We do not publish them, because we did not find a source we could check. The lab study above found no effect of sex or education on simple reaction time in adults aged 18 to 65.
Sources
- Human Benchmark: Reaction Time Statistics (median 273 ms, mean 284 ms, over 81 million recorded clicks; “30ms is currently a typical lag for a desktop/laptop”; mobile taps “tend to be a bit slower than clicks”). https://humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/statistics
- Woods DL, Wyma JM, Yund EW, Herron TJ, Reed B (2015). Factors influencing the latency of simple reaction time. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 9:131 (Table 1, Table 2 and abstract). doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00131. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4374455/
- PubMed record of the same paper (abstract). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25859198/
- Shelton J, Kumar GP (2010). Comparison between Auditory and Visual Simple Reaction Times. Neuroscience and Medicine 1:30-32. doi:10.4236/nm.2010.11004. https://www.scirp.org/html/4-2400003_2689.htm
Read and checked: October 10, 2026. Found a mistake? Email info@reactiontimetest.dev.