CPS KING

Mouse pad sizes: which one do you need?

There is no standard mouse pad size: each maker names its own. A classic pad is about 34 to 36 cm wide, a large one about 45 cm, and an XL desk mat 90 cm or more, wide enough for the keyboard too. Choose by how far you move the mouse: the pad has to hold your longest sweep plus the mouse itself.

How wide does your pad need to be?

These are example values: type your own over them.

Turn you make in one sweep
Pad width you need 26.5 cm (10.4 in)

Every pad in the chart below is wide enough.

Half of 40 cm, plus 6.5 cm for the mouse = 26.5 cm.

This counts the sweep from one side of the pad to the other. If you rest the mouse in the middle and turn either way, you need a half turn's room on both sides: choose the full turn.

Don't know your cm/360? A ruler finds it in a few minutes: measure your turn by hand.

Mouse pad sizes compared

Real sizes from the makers' own pages, narrowest first. The names are not a standard: Razer's Medium is wider than Logitech's classic G240, and Logitech's Large is a centimetre wider than Razer's.

  1. Logitech G240 34 × 28 cm · 13.4 × 11 in · 1 mm thick
  2. Razer Gigantus V2 Medium 36 × 27.5 cm · 14.2 × 10.8 in · 3 mm thick
  3. Razer Gigantus V2 Large 45 × 40 cm · 17.7 × 15.7 in · 3 mm thick
  4. Logitech G640 Large 46 × 40 cm · 18.1 × 15.7 in · 3 mm thick
  5. Logitech G840 XL 90 × 40 cm · 35.4 × 15.7 in · 3 mm thick
  6. Corsair MM300 PRO Extended 93 × 30 cm · 36.6 × 11.8 in · 3 mm thick
  7. Razer Gigantus V2 XXL 94 × 41 cm · 37 × 16.1 in · 4 mm thick
  8. Razer Gigantus V2 3XL 120 × 55 cm · 47.2 × 21.7 in · 4 mm thick

The line marks the width you need: 26.5 cm (10.4 in).

Each bar is the pad's width, to scale. Highlighted pads are wide enough for the sweep in the calculator above.

Low or high sensitivity

The lower your sensitivity, the further you move the mouse for each turn, and the wider the pad you need. At 25 cm a full turn, even a full turn fits on a classic pad; at 60 cm, a half turn with a 6.5 cm mouse already needs 36.5 cm, wider than both classic pads here. Changing your DPI or in-game sensitivity changes your cm/360, so check the width again after a change.

Depth: room to move up and down

Most aiming is sideways, so depth matters less than width. A deeper pad keeps your wrist and forearm on the same surface as the mouse: the classic pads here are 27.5 to 28 cm deep, the large ones 40 cm.

XL desk mats: measure your desk first

An XL pad, 90 to 94 cm wide, goes under the keyboard too, so the mouse never runs off an edge in the middle of a sweep. Measure the free width of your desk before you buy one: Razer's 3XL is 120 cm wide and 55 cm deep.

To choose your DPI, see the best DPI for gaming; to check what your mouse really sends, use the mouse DPI test; to compare your setting with other players', use the eDPI calculator.

Sizes from the makers' product pages: Logitech G240, G640 and G840; Razer Gigantus V2; Corsair MM300 PRO Extended.