CPS Test
How many times can you click in ten seconds. Pick a length, then click the pad. The clock starts on your first click.
0CPS
- Clicks
- 0
- Length
- 10 s
- Personal best
- 0 CPS
How the click speed test works
Choose a length, then start clicking the pad. The timer begins on your first click rather than on a separate start button, which matters more than it sounds: with a start button the first click of every run is spent somewhere else, and on a one second test that alone costs you a full click of score.
When time is up the counter freezes and your score is simply clicks divided by seconds. The six lengths cover the ones people actually look for. The one second test is close to pure burst speed, ten seconds is the standard everybody compares, and the sixty and hundred second versions are endurance tests where a completely different limit takes over.
What the numbers mean
| Clicks per second | Reading |
|---|---|
| Under 3.5 | Slow. Usually a trackpad, or not really going for it. |
| 3.5 to 5 | Below average for someone trying. |
| 5 to 6.5 | About average. |
| 6.5 to 8 | Above average. Good normal clicking. |
| 8 to 10 | Very fast. |
| Over 10 | Almost certainly a special technique rather than plain clicking. |
Why click speed is not reaction time
They feel related and they are not. Reaction time measures how quickly you respond to something unexpected, and it is limited by signal transmission through the nervous system. Click speed measures how quickly you can repeat a movement you have already decided to make, and it is limited by how fast one small muscle group can contract and relax. Somebody can be excellent at one and ordinary at the other. If you want the other number, the reaction time test takes about twenty seconds.
A word on jitter and butterfly clicking
The scores above 10 CPS you see quoted online generally come from one of two techniques. Jitter clicking means deliberately tensing the forearm until the hand vibrates. Butterfly clicking means alternating two fingers on the same button. Both work, and both are worth thinking twice about.
Jitter clicking in particular puts sustained tension through the forearm in a way that is a recognised route to repetitive strain injury, and people do end up with lasting problems from it. Plenty of game servers also detect the click pattern and ban for it. If you are chasing a number on a web page, it is not worth your tendons.
Getting a fair score
- Use a real mouse. Trackpads cap out several clicks per second lower.
- Rest your wrist rather than holding your arm up, which tires you within seconds.
- Run the ten second test two or three times and take the best. First attempts are almost always slow.
- Do not sprint the first three seconds of a sixty second test. Pace it and your total is higher.
All the tests
Reflex and speed
- Reaction time Click the moment the screen turns green. Five rounds, averaged.
- F1 start lights Five red lights out, then go. The Formula 1 start procedure.
- Sound reaction React to a tone instead of a colour. Eyes closed if you like.
- Aim trainer Thirty targets, as fast as you can hit them.
- Typing speed Words per minute and accuracy over sixty seconds.
Memory and attention
- Number memory One more digit every level. Most people stop around seven.
- Visual memory Remember the pattern of squares as the board grows.
- Sequence memory Repeat the order the tiles light up in.
- Chimp test The number test chimpanzees beat humans at.
Reading
- Average reaction time What the typical human reaction time actually is, and where the 250 ms figure comes from.
- Reaction time by age How reaction speed changes from childhood through older age.
- World records The fastest reaction times ever measured, and which claims hold up.
- Reaction time for gaming What reaction time means in Valorant and CS2, and what actually improves it.