Sample Rate & Buffer Size Latency Calculator

Your audio buffer size sets how much latency the system adds: latency = buffer ÷ sample rate. Pick a sample rate to see what each buffer size costs, one way and round-trip. (Real round-trip latency adds a little more for AD/DA conversion and drivers.)

Buffer sizes are usually chosen in your DAW or audio interface settings. Smaller = lower latency but more CPU load and risk of dropouts.

How it works

Buffer latency is the time it takes to fill one buffer of samples, and it is pure arithmetic.

latency (ms) = buffer size (samples) / sample rate (Hz) × 1000

round trip ≈ input buffer + output buffer + converter latency

A round trip is at least twice the buffer figure, plus whatever your interface's converters add — typically another 1–2 ms that no setting will remove.

Worked example

• 128 samples at 48 kHz = 128 / 48000 × 1000 = 2.67 ms one way
• Round trip at that setting ≈ 5.3 ms before converters
• 512 samples at 44.1 kHz = 11.6 ms one way — fine for mixing, poor for tracking
• Doubling the sample rate halves the latency for the same buffer size

In practice

• Under about 10 ms round trip most players stop noticing. Above 20 ms it actively interferes with timing.
• Small buffers while tracking, large buffers while mixing. Recording needs responsiveness; mixing needs CPU headroom for plugins. Switch deliberately between the two.
• Raising the sample rate reduces latency at the same buffer size, but costs proportionally more CPU — it is not free.
• 10 ms is roughly 3.4 metres of air. Standing a few steps from a guitar amp introduces the same delay you are trying to eliminate in software.
• Plugin delay compensation adds latency that your buffer setting does not show. Look-ahead limiters and linear-phase EQs are the usual culprits.

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