# What’s the Difference Between Throughput and Latency?  ## Metadata - Author: [[Amazon Web Services, Inc.]] - Full Title: What’s the Difference Between Throughput and Latency? - Category: #articles - Summary: Throughput measures the amount of data transferred in a network over time, while latency measures the delay in data transmission. High throughput and low latency lead to better network performance and user satisfaction. AWS offers services to enhance both throughput and latency for improved network efficiency. - URL: https://aws.amazon.com/compare/the-difference-between-throughput-and-latency/ ## Highlights - Networks with a longer delay or lag have high latency, while those with fast response times have lower latency. In contrast, throughput refers to the average volume of data that can actually pass through the network over a specific time. It indicates the number of data packets that arrive at their destinations successfully and the data packet loss. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01je78s9qrrc0azs5v68rb0xdh)) - A network with low throughput and high latency struggles to send and process high data volume, which results in congestion and poor application performance. In contrast, a network with high throughput and low latency is responsive and efficient. Users experience improved performance and increased satisfaction. High-performing networks directly impact revenue generation and operational efficiency. In addition, certain use cases—like real-time streaming, Internet of Things (IoT) data analytics, and high-performance computing—require certain network performance thresholds to operate optimally. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01je78x9ettbrhg7e5vnstwvtv)) - You can measure network latency by measuring ping time. This process is where you transmit a small data packet and receive confirmation that it arrived. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01je78xr1fr80ck02ha28h0azm)) - You measure latency in milliseconds. If you have a low number of milliseconds, your network is only experiencing a small delay. The higher the number in milliseconds, the slower the network is performing.  Originally, you would measure network throughput in bits per second (bps). But, as data transmission technologies have improved, you can now achieve much higher values. Because of this, you can measure throughput in kilobytes per second (KBps), megabytes per second (MBps), and even gigabytes per second (GBps). One byte is equal to eight bits. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01je792dfyzhqtykedk1fw05pg))