What Is a Good Reaction Time?
For a simple visual reaction test, under about 200 ms is a good reaction time and 200 to 250 ms is typical for healthy adults. Consistency matters as much as the number: a good result is a low average across several rounds, not one lucky tap. Scores taken on phones and laptops include device delay, so compare against your own results on the same setup.
What 'good' means for reaction time
There is no official pass mark. 'Good' is relative to the ranges reported in research for a simple visual reaction task, and to the device you use. The bands below are a practical summary of those ranges.
| Average over several rounds | Reading |
|---|---|
| Under 180 ms | Exceptional |
| 180–200 ms | Fast |
| 200–250 ms | Good to typical |
| 250–300 ms | Slightly slow; often fixable with focus and rest |
| Over 300 ms | Slow for the test; check the setup and try again rested |
What moves you between bands
- Alertness: a rested, focused attempt can be tens of milliseconds faster than a tired one.
- Warm-up: the first round or two are usually slower than the rest.
- Age: the same person will typically post slower averages later in life.
- Anticipation: guessing the signal produces impossible numbers, which is why good tests restart a round tapped early.
- Hardware: a high-refresh display and a low-latency input trim the score without you getting any faster.
How to get a fair reading
- Take five or more rounds and use the average.
- Keep the same device, browser and posture between attempts.
- Do one warm-up run before the one you count.
- Write the number down with the date so you can track it.
What a good TAPP score looks like
TAPP does not score reaction time in milliseconds on its leaderboard. Dodge scores a streak: the number of targets you hit in a row before missing or running out of time. The window to hit each target starts at 1.5 seconds and shrinks by 3% per hit down to 0.42 seconds, so long streaks require both quick reactions and accurate taps.
As a rule of thumb from the difficulty curve rather than from player data: ten consecutive hits is a solid first run, twenty means you are staying calm as the targets get fast, and streaks beyond thirty are exceptional. Verified Dodge streaks from the app are ranked on the Dodge leaderboard, daily, weekly and all-time.
Frequently asked questions
Is 150 ms a good reaction time?
A genuine 150 ms average on a simple visual test would be exceptional. On a phone or laptop it is more likely to include some anticipation, so check that the test uses a random delay and restarts early taps.
Is 300 ms a bad reaction time?
It is on the slow side for a simple visual test, but tiredness, distraction and device delay can all push a typical person to 300 ms. Rest, focus and retest before reading anything into it.
Do gamers have better reaction times?
Research on action video game players has found faster processing on some perceptual tasks. Whether that is caused by gaming or by who chooses to play is still being studied.
What is a good TAPP Dodge streak?
As a rule of thumb, ten hits in a row is a good start, twenty is strong, and thirty or more is rare because the hit window has shrunk close to its 0.42-second floor by then. TAPP has not yet published streak distributions from player data.
Sources
- Woods DL, Wyma JM, Yund EW, Herron TJ, Reed B. Factors influencing the latency of simple reaction time. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9:131, 2015.
- Der G, Deary IJ. Age and sex differences in reaction time in adulthood: results from the United Kingdom Health and Lifestyle Survey. Psychology and Aging, 21(1):62–73, 2006.
- Lim J, Dinges DF. A meta-analysis of the impact of short-term sleep deprivation on cognitive variables. Psychological Bulletin, 136(3):375–389, 2010.
- Bediou B, Adams DM, Mayer RE, Tipton E, Green CS, Bavelier D. Meta-analysis of action video game impact on perceptual, attentional, and cognitive skills. Psychological Bulletin, 144(1):77–110, 2018.