---
title: "Kilobat for gamers: find lag spikes on your Mac"
url: "https://kilobat.app/gaming.html"
description: "Find what causes lag on your Mac: Wi-Fi spikes, AirDrop scanning, bufferbloat and background downloads. Then show your live ping on stream."
---

For gamers

# Find the lag before it finds you.

A speed test says 500 Mbps and the match still stutters. Kilobat finds the short spikes that averages hide, names what causes them, and puts your ping on stream.

[Download for Mac ↓](https://kilobat.app/downloads/Kilobat-1.3.7.dmg)

```
brew install seifip/kilobat/kilobat
```

## Why a Mac lags when the speed test looks fine

- **AirDrop and Handoff scanning.** The Mac’s radio hops channels to look for nearby devices, which adds a spike of a hundred milliseconds or more at a steady beat.
- **Bufferbloat.** When something uploads, such as a backup, a cloud folder or a stream, your router queues everything behind it and ping climbs.
- **Background downloads.** macOS, app and game-launcher updates start on their own.
- **Weak or crowded Wi-Fi.** 2.4 GHz, a far router or a busy channel turn every packet into a gamble.

## Fix it in three steps

1

### Run the stutter test

It pings every 50 ms for 20 seconds, draws every spike, and says whether they repeat on a beat (AirDrop) or come at random (Wi-Fi or congestion). Free.

2

### Pause the radio for the match

The low-latency pause turns off AirDrop, Sidecar and Universal Control until your game quits, and always restores them. Pro in the app, free in the CLI: `kilobat low-latency on --until-quit`.

3

### Check latency under load

The speed test measures ping while downloading and uploading, so bufferbloat shows up as a number, not a feeling. Free.

## Your ping, on stream

Turn on the streaming overlay and add it to OBS as a Browser Source. A small pill shows live ping, jitter, loss and the last minute as a line. The bat at its start smiles when the line is good and frowns when it isn’t, so chat knows it was the internet, not you. It’s free, and runs on your Mac only. [How to set it up](https://kilobat.app/docs.html#overlay).

## Questions

**Does it work with cloud gaming?**

Yes. GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming and similar services are sensitive to exactly the spikes and loss Kilobat measures. Run the stutter test against the internet, then against your router, to see which side they come from.

**Can I see what’s eating bandwidth mid-match?**

Yes. The menu bar shows live upload and download for every app, free. With Pro, a profile can keep everything but the game and its voice chat offline.

**Is it free?**

The stutter test, speed test, live traffic and the streaming overlay are free. The in-app low-latency pause, blocking and history are part of Pro, $19 once, with a 7-day free trial.

## Get your network out of the dark.

[Download for Mac ↓](https://kilobat.app/downloads/Kilobat-1.3.7.dmg)

```
brew install seifip/kilobat/kilobat
```