Reaction Age Test
Reaction time peaks in your early twenties and slowly drifts after that, so your speed hints at a "reaction age". Take the quick test, enter your real age if you like, and find out whether your reflexes are younger or older than you are.
- Peaks at ~22
- Reaction time is fastest in your early 20s
- Median of 5
- One slow click cannot skew it
- No sign-up
- Your age stays in your browser
Click to start
Wait for green, then click as fast as you can. Five tries, then see your reaction age.
– yr
your reaction age
Why your reaction time has an "age"
Reaction time follows a clear arc across life. It sharpens through childhood, peaks somewhere in the early twenties, holds fairly steady through the thirties, then slows a little every decade after that. Because the curve is so consistent across large datasets, a single reaction-time number can be read backwards: if you react in 250 ms, that matches the average for a certain age, and that is your reaction age.
It is meant to be fun, not clinical. Your score moves with sleep, caffeine, the device you are on and how warmed up you are, so treat a younger-than-you result as a good day and an older one as a nudge to test again rested. If you want the serious version of the data, the average reaction time by age page has the full table and the sources behind this curve.
The curve your result is read against
Rather than make you take our word for it, here is the reference curve the reaction age is calculated from. Find the online column closest to your score and that is roughly the age band it maps to:
| Age band | Lab scale | Online scale |
|---|---|---|
| 10–14 | 230 ms | 285 ms |
| 15–19 | 218 ms | 268 ms |
| 20–24 | 213 ms | 258 ms |
| 25–34 | 222 ms | 268 ms |
| 35–44 | 238 ms | 286 ms |
| 45–54 | 268 ms | 312 ms |
| 55–64 | 295 ms | 338 ms |
| 65–74 | 320 ms | 362 ms |
| 75+ | 355 ms | 395 ms |
Compiled reference curve. The lab column is drawn from the simple-reaction-time literature; the online column is that same curve shifted +55 ms to online-click scale. A ReactScore estimate, not measured values from any single study.
Two things stand out once you see it laid out. The curve is flattest between roughly 20 and 40, so a 25-year-old and a 38-year-old can easily swap places on a good day. And the gap from the twenties to the seventies is smaller than most people guess: worth knowing before you take a "reaction age of 45" personally.
How to get an honest reaction age
- Take it rested. Tiredness alone can add 30 to 50 ms, which reads as years older.
- Use a mouse if you can. Touchscreens and trackpads add their own lag on top of your reflexes.
- Run it a few times. We already take the median of five, but a few sessions average out a bad start.
Curious how you stack up against everyone, not just your age group? Take the main reaction time test and then check the rankings.