What the Latency Numbers Really Mean

Click the lightning bolt on the Proxies page and every node gets a millisecond figure. Most people read it as ping. It isn't — and knowing what it actually measures saves you from several wrong conclusions.

What's being measured

Verge sends an HTTP request through the node to the test URL (default http://cp.cloudflare.com/generate_204) and times the whole exchange: you → node, the proxy handshake, node → test server, and back. That's why it's bigger than a raw ping — and why it's more honest, because it reflects what real usage feels like.

Reading the colors

• Green (<200ms) — browsing feels instant;
• Yellow (200–500ms) — usable, slight pause on page loads;
• Red / Timeout — node unreachable, or the test URL is blocked on the node's side.

Low latency does not mean high bandwidth. A 45ms node can still choke on 4K video — latency measures response time, video needs throughput. The only bandwidth test that counts is running a speedtest through the node.

Changing the test URL

Settings lets you customize the latency test URL. Two rules of thumb:

1. Use a lightweight 204 endpoint (http://www.gstatic.com/generate_204 or the Cloudflare one) — near-zero traffic cost;
2. Pick by question: "how fast is Google via this node" → gstatic; "is this node alive at all" → Cloudflare, which is reachable in more regions and won't falsely flag nodes dead.