Mouse Acceleration Detector
Find out if your OS mouse acceleration is active. Move slowly then quickly — we analyze your cursor's nonlinearity.
Test
Escape to reset
You just tested your Mouse Acceleration Detector — Try Mouse Sensitivity Converter next →
What Is Mouse Acceleration Detection?
Mouse acceleration is a non-linear scaling curve the OS applies between raw mouse counts (CPI / DPI ticks reported by the sensor) and cursor pixels rendered on screen. On Windows the relevant setting is called Enhance Pointer Precision; on macOS it is part of Tracking Speed in System Settings; on Linux it is the libinput-pointer-acceleration-profile (flat vs adaptive). With acceleration on, the OS multiplies your physical motion by a factor that grows with velocity — so 100 raw counts/second might map to 0.8x, while 2000 counts/second maps to 2.5x. The detector here samples a slow-pass and a fast-pass of cursor motion, fits a velocity-vs-gain curve, and reports a nonlinearity index — close to 0 for a flat (raw) curve, well above 0 for accelerated input. Game engines that opt into raw input (SetWindowsHookEx with WM_INPUT, or Steam Input on consoles) bypass the OS curve entirely; everything else, including most browsers and productivity apps, receives the cooked accelerated stream.
How to Use the Mouse Acceleration Detector
Click Start Test. The first phase asks you to move the mouse slowly — gentle drags across the pad, holding constant low velocity for ~5 seconds. The second phase asks for fast flicks — quick wide arcs at high velocity. The page records cursor position deltas via pointermove events (sub-pixel accuracy on modern browsers), buckets the samples by velocity, and compares the average gain in each bucket. The output: a nonlinearity index (lower is better — 0 means linear / raw input) and a verdict. If acceleration is detected, the page lists the exact toggle path for Windows (Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Mouse > Additional mouse settings > Pointer Options > uncheck Enhance pointer precision), macOS (System Settings > Mouse > tracking is non-toggleable but can be tuned via defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1), and Linux (libinput profile flat).
Why Mouse Acceleration Affects Your Aim
Aim consistency is a memorised mapping between physical hand distance and on-screen rotation. Acceleration breaks the mapping by making the same hand movement produce different cursor distances depending on how fast you swung. A 10 cm flick at low velocity might rotate the in-game camera 90°; the same 10 cm at high velocity rotates 180°. Muscle memory cannot adapt to a moving target — pro CS, Valorant, and Apex players almost universally disable acceleration in both the OS and the game. The tradeoff is desktop work: with acceleration off, crossing a 4K display at low velocity requires multiple swipes. Most competitive players accept this — they bind a higher DPI for desktop use or rely on a second pointer profile. The fix on Windows is one checkbox; on Linux one config line. Doing it correctly costs nothing and unlocks reproducible aim that years of practice cannot achieve under a varying gain curve.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is mouse acceleration?
A setting that makes the cursor move further when you move the mouse faster. It can make precise aiming harder because your muscle memory becomes inconsistent.
How does this test detect it?
You move your mouse slowly then quickly. We compare how nonlinear your cursor speed is between the two phases. If fast movement produces disproportionately higher speed variance, acceleration is likely active.
Is acceleration always bad?
For gaming (FPS, RTS), turning it off is recommended for consistent aim. For everyday desktop use, it is a personal preference.
Use this tool inside a bigger workflow
These collections group follow-up tools and guides that commonly belong in the same job.
Browse same tags
Jump to other tools that share the same workflow, format, or use case.