Controller Deadzone Test
A deadzone is the circle of movement a game throws away. This tool shows that circle on your own sticks so you can pick the smallest one that still hides your drift.
Controller status
No Controller Detected
Connect your controller using USB or Bluetooth and press any button.
- Browsers only reveal a pad after it sends its first input — press a face button or move a stick.
- Both USB and Bluetooth work. If nothing appears at all, reconnect the controller and press a button with this page focused.
- Some remapping tools claim the pad before the browser sees it. If nothing shows up, try closing them and reloading.
- Chrome or Edge expose the most controller features, including vibration.
Deadzone visualizer
See exactly which stick movement a given deadzone would throw away
Connect a controller and press any button to use the deadzone tool.
Troubleshooting
Controller not detected? Work through this checklist
Nine checks covering focus, cables, Bluetooth pairing, background software, DS4Windows virtual controllers and browser support — open it only if your controller is not showing up.
Picking a value you can live with
Drag the slider and watch the badge under each stick. Anything inside the dashed circle would be discarded by a game using that deadzone.
The recommended minimum comes from your own resting measurement plus a small safety margin, so it is specific to your controller rather than a generic number copied from a forum post.
The trade-off
Lower deadzones give sharper, more responsive fine aiming, but any drift passes straight through into the game.
Higher deadzones hide drift reliably at the cost of small stick movements — the slow, precise adjustments that matter most when aiming or steering.
Frequently asked questions
- What deadzone should I use?
- Start with the recommended minimum shown above, then raise it a step at a time until unwanted movement stops in game. Most healthy pads sit comfortably between 2% and 8%.
- Is deadzone the same as stick drift?
- No. Drift is the fault; deadzone is the setting that masks it. Raising the deadzone does not repair anything, it just tells the game to ignore small movement.
- Why do different games need different deadzones?
- Games apply their own deadzone on top of whatever the controller reports, and the shape differs — some use a circle, some use a square, some scale the response curve.
- Can I set a deadzone for the whole system?
- Steam and several controller utilities let you set one globally, and some consoles expose a per-controller setting. This page helps you choose the value, not apply it.
Continue testing
- Controller Stick Drift TestRun a timed resting measurement on both analog sticks. See average, median, peak and 95th percentile offset, plus a clear verdict on whether your controller is drifting.
- Controller Circularity & Range TestRotate each analog stick and see its full path drawn live. Measure radial minimum and maximum and how many of sixteen directions the stick reaches.
- Controller Health CheckRun a guided full diagnostic and get a transparent controller health score with per-category results, a confidence level and a downloadable report card.
- what is controller deadzone
GamePadTestLab reports what your browser can see. It cannot repair stick drift, certify hardware, or read a controller's firmware. Read the testing methodology for exactly how each figure is calculated and where it stops being reliable.