What is a good CPS? Average click speeds, techniques and how to click faster

A good CPS depends on how you click. With normal clicking, most people manage around 6 clicks per second on a 5 or 10 second test, and people who play click-heavy games often reach 7 to 9. Beyond about 10, most people are using a technique: jitter or butterfly clicking takes them to 10 to 15 or more, and drag clicking can register dozens of clicks in a short burst. All of these are rough figures, and the length of the test moves them a lot.

What CPS measures

CPS is clicks per second: the number of clicks you made, divided by the length of the test. 50 clicks in a 5 second test is 10 CPS. On the CPS test, only left clicks count, and the timer waits for your first click, so you don't lose time moving your hand to the button.

How test length changes your score

The same person gets a different score on each test length, so only compare scores from tests of the same length.

• 1 second: the highest numbers. You can hold a burst for one second that you couldn't keep up for longer. The click that starts the timer also counts, which adds up to a whole click per second to a 1 second score and almost nothing to a 60 second one.
• 5 and 10 seconds: the usual way to compare, and what most "average CPS" figures mean. Long enough to even out a lucky start, short enough that you're not tired yet.
• 30 and 60 seconds: a test of stamina. Expect a lower score than your 10 second one, especially with jitter clicking, because holding your arm tense is tiring. The bars under your result show your clicks in each second, so you can see where you slowed down.

Typical CPS by technique

These ranges are approximate, for a 5 or 10 second test. Your hand, your mouse and practice all move them, and plenty of people score outside them.

How each clicking technique works

Jitter clicking

You tense the muscles in your forearm and wrist until your hand shakes slightly, and let that tremor drive your finger on the button. Many players use a claw grip, with the finger arched over the button. It needs no special mouse and is quick to learn, but it tires you out fast, the shaking makes aiming harder, and it's the technique most likely to leave your arm sore.

Butterfly clicking

You rest your index and middle fingers on the left button and tap with them in turn, like drumming on a table. Each finger only needs half the speed, which is why butterfly scores are high. It doesn't rely on a tense arm, but you hold the mouse with fewer fingers, so aiming takes practice. Mice differ here: if two taps land within the mouse's debounce time, it counts them as one click.

Drag clicking

You press a dry fingertip onto the button and slide it slowly along the surface. Friction makes the button vibrate, and each vibration opens and closes the switch, so the mouse registers a stream of clicks in a fraction of a second. It depends heavily on the mouse: the button needs a surface with the right grip, and the debounce time must be short, or the mouse filters the bounces out. Drag clicks arrive closer together than any finger can manage, so the CPS test's warning about clicks less than 25 ms apart is expected here.

How to click faster

• Pick one technique and stay with it for a few weeks. Switching every session makes it hard to tell what's working.
• Find a grip that leaves your clicking finger free. A claw or fingertip grip lets the finger move without dragging the mouse around with it.
• Relax everything you don't need. Even in jitter clicking, a tense shoulder or a tight grip on the mouse slows you down and tires you sooner.
• Practice in short sets. A few 10 second tests with rests in between give you scores you can compare and are easier on your hand than long sessions.
• Track your 10 second best, not a 1 second record. It reflects speed you can actually use in a game.
• Check your mouse. If clicks seem to go missing when you click very fast, a long debounce time may be merging them. Some mouse apps let you lower it, but the shorter it is, the sooner a wearing switch starts to double click.

Practice without hurting your hand

Fast clicking packs a lot of repetitive movement into a few seconds. A little common sense keeps it safe:

• Take breaks. Rest between tests, shake out your hand, and stop for the day before it starts to ache.
• Don't click through pain. Pain, tingling or numbness in your hand, wrist or forearm means stop. If it keeps coming back, stop fast clicking and see a doctor.
• Go easy on jitter clicking. The tension that makes it work is what makes it tiring. If it leaves your arm sore, try butterfly clicking, which doesn't rely on tension.

What CPS you need for Minecraft PvP

Click speed matters most on servers that use the older combat from Java Edition 1.8 and earlier, and in Bedrock Edition. Neither has the attack cooldown that Java Edition added in version 1.9, so every click is a full swing. With the cooldown, clicking before it recharges gives weaker hits, so timing matters more than speed.

Even without a cooldown, more clicks don't mean more damage. After a player takes a hit, there's half a second (10 game ticks) in which hits of the same strength do no extra damage. What a higher CPS does is land a hit the moment that window ends, and keep swings coming while you aim and move. That's why many players treat roughly 8 to 12 CPS as plenty. The CPS test has tips for practicing for PvP.

Check the rules of the server you play on before you rely on a technique. Auto clickers, macros and mouse buttons that fire bursts of clicks are banned on most servers, and rules on drag clicking, butterfly clicking and lowered debounce times differ from one server to the next. Very high CPS can also trip a server's anti-cheat.

Questions