How to Check Your Broker Ping in MT4 and MT5 (Guide)

Every time your Expert Advisor sends an order, it travels from your trading terminal to your broker’s server and back again. The time that round trip takes is your ping, measured in milliseconds (ms). On a quiet day, a few extra milliseconds make little difference. During a news release or a fast breakout, they can decide whether you are filled at your price or a few pips worse.

Most traders have never actually checked their ping. They assume it is fine, or they rely on a number from a provider’s website. The good news is that MetaTrader already measures it for you, and it takes less than a minute to find. This guide shows you four ways to check your broker ping in MT4 and MT5, explains what the number really means, what counts as a good result, and what to do if yours is too high.

What Ping Actually Measures

Ping is the round-trip time between your terminal and the broker server it is connected to. It is not the same as execution speed, which also includes the time your broker takes to process the order. Think of it as the travel time on the road to your broker. Your broker’s processing time is what happens after you arrive.

Two things decide your ping:

• Physical distance. Data travels through fibre at roughly two-thirds of the speed of light. A terminal in Mumbai connecting to a broker in London covers thousands of kilometres each way, and that alone adds tens of milliseconds.
• The network path. Home broadband, Wi-Fi and busy routes add delays and variation, called jitter. Data centre connections are shorter and more stable.

That is why the same broker can show 120 ms on your home PC and 1 ms on a VPS in the same data centre district as the broker. You can read more about the effect on your trades in how latency affects forex trading.

Method 1: Check Ping in the MT4 Status Bar

This is the quickest method and works in every MT4 build.

1. Look at the bottom-right corner of MT4. You will see a small coloured bar icon with two numbers beside it, for example “1250/3 kb”. If the status bar is missing, click View > Status Bar.
2. Note that the “kb” figures are not your ping. They show how much data the terminal has received and sent since it started.
3. Left-click the connection icon. A menu opens listing your broker’s available servers (also called access points).
4. Each server shows a ping in milliseconds. The one you are connected to has a tick beside it. That number is your current ping.
5. The same menu includes Rescan servers, which makes MT4 test every access point again and pick the fastest one.

Avoid rescanning or switching servers while an EA is in the middle of a trade. Switching causes a short reconnection, and some EAs react badly to a dropped connection.

Method 2: Check Ping in the MT5 Status Bar

MT5 makes ping easier to see.

1. Look at the bottom-right corner of MT5. Next to the signal-strength bars, MT5 normally shows your current ping in milliseconds directly, for example “1.42 ms”.
2. If you see traffic figures instead, left-click the bars. A menu lists the available access points with their ping, and the active one is ticked.
3. Use the same menu to rescan and choose a faster access point if needed.

MT5 also shows ping when it logs in, which brings us to the next method.

Method 3: Read the Journal

The Journal records every connection event, which makes it useful for checking ping over time rather than at a single moment.

1. Open the Terminal window in MT4 (View > Terminal, or Ctrl+T) or the Toolbox in MT5 (View > Toolbox).
2. Click the Journal tab, not the Experts tab.
3. Look for login or authorisation messages. These show the server name and, in MT5 and many MT4 builds, the ping recorded at the time of connection.
4. Scroll back through several days. If the ping is consistent, your connection is stable. If it jumps around, you have jitter, which matters as much as the average.

The Journal is also where you spot repeated disconnections. If you see “connection lost” and “connected” messages several times a day, your problem is connection stability rather than ping.

Method 4: Measure from Windows (Advanced)

Sometimes you want a second opinion, for example to compare two VPS locations before you move. Windows can measure the connection directly, as long as you know your broker’s server address.

Step 1: Find the broker server address

1. Open Task Manager, go to the Details tab and note the PID of terminal.exe (MT4) or terminal64.exe (MT5).
2. Open Resource Monitor (type it into the Start menu) and click the Network tab.
3. Tick your terminal’s process, then look under TCP Connections. The Remote Address and Remote Port with steady activity is usually your broker’s trading server.

Step 2: Test the connection

The standard ping command often fails against broker servers, because many brokers block ICMP ping requests for security. A timed-out ping does not mean your trading connection is broken.

Instead, test the actual trading port with PsPing, a free Microsoft Sysinternals tool. Download it from Microsoft, open Command Prompt in its folder, and run a command like: psping -n 20 203.0.113.10:443, replacing the address and port with the ones you found. PsPing connects to that port twenty times and reports the minimum, maximum and average time. The average is your real-world ping to the broker; the gap between minimum and maximum shows your jitter.

For EA developers: read ping in code

MQL5, and recent MT4 builds, can read the last measured ping from inside an EA using TerminalInfoInteger(TERMINAL_PING_LAST). The value is returned in microseconds, so divide by 1,000 for milliseconds. Logging it every hour gives you a ping history you can compare with your fills.

What Is a Good Ping for Forex Trading?

There is no single magic number, because what matters depends on your strategy. As a practical guide:

Our own guidance is to aim for under 8 ms if you run automated strategies, and as close to 1 ms as your broker’s location allows. Scalpers feel the difference most; see why low-latency servers are a must for scalpers.

Why Your Ping Is High and How to Lower It

1. You are too far from the broker

This is the most common cause, and no setting inside MetaTrader can fix it. The only fix is to run your terminal closer to the broker’s server. Most retail forex brokers keep their trading servers in a handful of financial data centre districts, mainly in London and New York.

Our broker latency table shows measured ping from our London and New York data centres to more than 150 brokers. A few examples:

The pattern is clear: choosing the right city can cut ping from around 70 ms to about 1 ms. Our guide on how to choose the right VPS location for your broker walks you through it, and what NY4 is and why a New York VPS helps explains the New York side.

2. You are connected to a slow access point

Many brokers offer several access points. If MetaTrader connected to a distant one, Rescan servers (Method 1) often fixes it. Do this when your EAs are flat.

3. Your home connection is unstable

Wi-Fi, shared household broadband and evening congestion all add jitter. Moving your terminal to a VPS removes your home connection from the trading path entirely. You then connect to the VPS only to check on it, and that connection’s speed has no effect on your orders.

4. The VPS itself is overloaded

If your VPS is short of memory or CPU, the terminal can respond slowly even with a low network ping. Close unused programs and check why your forex VPS may be running slow.

Ping, Slippage and Real Trading Costs

Lower ping does not guarantee profit, and it cannot fix a weak strategy. What it does is narrow the gap between the price your EA sees and the price your order reaches. Over hundreds of trades, that gap adds up. Our article on how latency can cost traders up to $10 per lot works through the numbers, and how low network latency reduces slippage explains the mechanics.

A Simple Ping Check Routine

1. Check your ping in the status bar once a week, at the same time of day.
2. After any change, such as a new VPS, a new broker server or a platform update, check it again.
3. Scan the Journal for disconnections every few days.
4. If your ping rises suddenly, rescan servers when your EAs are flat. If it stays high, contact your VPS provider or broker.

If your current ping is well above 10 ms, a VPS in the right city is usually the single biggest improvement you can make. Compare our London and New York forex VPS plans, starting from $5 per month.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I see ping in MT4?

Left-click the connection indicator in the bottom-right corner of MT4. The menu lists your broker’s servers with their ping in milliseconds, and the ticked server is the one you are using.

Is the “kb” number in the MT4 status bar my ping?

No. The two kb numbers show how much data the terminal has received and sent. Your ping is shown in the server list that appears when you click the indicator.

Why does the Windows ping command time out on my broker’s server?

Many brokers block ICMP ping requests. It does not affect trading. Use a TCP tool such as PsPing against the trading port instead.

What is a good ping for an EA?

Under 8 ms is a good target for automated trading, and 1 to 2 ms is achievable on a VPS in the same city as your broker’s server.

Does Rescan servers interrupt trading?

It can cause a brief reconnection if MetaTrader switches to a different access point. Run it when your EAs have no open trades.

Why is my ping different at different times of day?

Network routes get busier at peak hours, especially on home broadband. A VPS in a data centre has far more stable ping throughout the day.

Does lower ping guarantee better fills?

It improves your chances, because your order reaches the broker sooner. Fills also depend on your broker’s execution, liquidity and market conditions.