Packet Loss Significance Checker

Measure packet loss from ping output — and know when the sample is too small to trust.

What you paste

Parsed in your browser — never uploaded

Paste your ping output

How this reads your output

The tool reads the summary line of a ping run — how many packets were sent and how many came back — and reports the loss. It refuses to draw a conclusion from a short run, because Windows sends only four packets by default and a single drop there reads as an alarming 25%.

What the results mean

Loss: The share of packets that never returned. Under 1% is normal; sustained loss above 5% disrupts calls, streaming and gaming.
Too few packets: Below 20 packets, chance dominates and the percentage is meaningless. Re-run with 50 or more.

Common problems and fixes

It says it cannot measure loss: Paste the whole run including the summary. The individual reply lines do not reveal drops on their own — a lost packet simply produces no line.
My 4-packet test shows 25% loss: That is one dropped packet out of four, which tells you almost nothing. Run ping -n 50 (Windows) or ping -c 50 (macOS/Linux) and measure again.

Frequently asked questions

How much packet loss is acceptable?

Occasional loss under about 1% is normal and unnoticeable. Real-time applications start to suffer above 2–3%, and above 5% calls break up and games become unplayable. What matters most is whether it is sustained across repeated tests.

Why do I need so many packets?

Loss is a rate, and rates need a sample to be meaningful. Four packets can only ever show 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% — none of which is a useful measurement. Fifty packets resolves down to 2% steps.

Put this on your own site

Free to embed, no attribution required beyond the source link the frame carries itself. It runs entirely in your visitor's browser, sets no cookies and loads no third-party script.

Embed code

<iframe src="https://runthetests.com/embed/packet-loss-analyzer/" width="100%" height="720" style="border:1px solid #e5e5e5;border-radius:8px" title="Packet Loss Significance Checker" loading="lazy"></iframe>

Preview it at https://runthetests.com/embed/packet-loss-analyzer/. Embedded pages are marked noindex, so yours stays the canonical copy — not this one.