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We’ve looked at the specs, done the research, and rounded up the best mouse pads on the market today. Whether you’re looking for an ergonomic mouse pad with wrist rest, a mouse pad for gaming, or the best mouse pads for designers and drafting, we’ve got you covered. To find our top picks, we made sure each mouse pad had an accurate tracking surface, a good balance between friction and smoothness, and offered enough softness to extend the life of your mouse, whether you’re using an optical mouse or laser mouse. Planning to upgrade your mouse? There are some cool options you can find in our computer mouse guide.
Our top pick, the SteelSeries QcK Gaming Mouse Pad, has been one of the most favored mousepads among esports pros for a long time, thanks to its micro woven cloth that maximizes accuracy and precision. Keep reading to see more of our top picks.
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Award: Top Pick
WHY WE LIKE IT: This time-tested mouse pad for gaming offers a micro-woven surface that’s helpful not just to eSports players but to designers and anyone who values precision mouse tracking at work or at home desktops.
It may not appear that way on the surface, but a surprising amount of research and development goes into creating the best mouse pads. The SteelSeries QcK Gaming Surface – Medium Cloth is a favorite mouse pad for gaming enthusiasts, designers, and office workers. It’s tested by the top mouse sensor manufacturer and features a high thread count, and micro-woven soft surface that offers a balance between speed and precision, making the SteelSeries QcK easily one of the best gaming mouse pads on the market. It’s nice that the QcK cloth mouse pads work well with optical mice as well as wireless mice. The surface material used on this type of mouse has a high thread count that offers a smooth glide, precise mouse control, and very precise mouse movements. These nonslip natural rubber base mouse pads eliminate any unwarranted movement to give you the best gaming experience.
Smooth and silent, yet with enough friction to allow pinpoint accuracy and steady tracking, this 12.6-inch by 10.4-inch version is the “just right” mouse pad for low dpi to mid dpi settings and average-sized desks. Combined with the best mouse, this will give you a great experience. To check out our Top Picks for the best gaming mouse pad, have a look at our review: Best Gaming Mouse Pad.
Award: Honorable Mention
WHY WE LIKE IT: A clean, unadorned surface and friction-optimized jersey surface make this simple mouse pad excel at smooth control and pinpoint accuracy.
Sometimes simple is best, and when it comes to mouse pads for work or home PC use, this Belkin mouse pad does a great job pairing simplicity with aesthetics and functionality. It uses a fine woven jersey surface to balance smoothness and friction, giving you more pinpoint accuracy and better control over your computer.
At 8 x 9 inches, this Belkin standard is among the smaller mouse pads on the market. That means it’s great for compact desks and home workspaces, though you may want to look elsewhere if you’re looking for maximum mouse pad real estate. That said, it makes a perfectly fine mouse pad for gaming for casual users and even works perfectly with optical mice. This one is great because it leaves plenty of desk room for the best keyboard. Match this mouse pad with the best gaming mouse!
Award: Best Budget
WHY WE LIKE IT: A stitched edge prevents fraying on this durable, densely textured mouse pad. Plus, it’s washable and works just as well with optical and laser mouse sensors.
This mouse pad for work and gaming features washable fabric, an anti-fade treatment, and reinforced beveled stitching around its edges so that it won’t fray with long-term use, making it one of the most durable all-purpose mouse pads on the market. It is ideal for gaming computers, laptops, and PC use. This premium-textured mouse mat is versatile, able to work just as well with laser as with optical mouse sensors, and has an anti-slip natural rubber base that firmly grips the desktop. At about 10 x 8 inches, it splits the difference between medium-sized and compact desktop mouse pads.
While the durability and ease of cleaning make this premium-textured mouse mat a great choice for home office use, it’s on the thinner side and so requires a more perfectly flat surface than thicker, softer mouse pads. But we do like the fact that this premium-textured non-slip rubber base mouse mat works perfectly well with optical mice, as well as wireless mice. And if you use the best wireless keyboards, it won’t interfere with your keyboard use as well.
Award: Best Wrist Rest
WHY WE LIKE IT: A gel-filled wrist wrest and ergonomic, rounded shape help stave off carpal tunnel and repetitive motion strain, making this one of the more comfortable mouse pads for long periods of work or other computer activities.
One of the top-rated mouse pads with wrist rest on the market, this Victsing ergonomic mousepad comes with a supportive yet soft gel-filled pad that helps keep your wrist safe from repetitive strain injury and ward off carpal tunnel syndrome. A rounded, ergonomic shape encourages natural mouse movement and good posture, making this one of the best mouse pads for work, especially if you work long hours.
It takes up about the same amount of desk space as the compact mouse pads from Belkin and Victsing, so it should fit fine on most work surfaces, though it may be on a small size for a dedicated mouse pad for gaming. It pairs well with the best tablet keyboard.
Award: Best Large
WHY WE LIKE IT: Spill-resistant construction and reinforced edge stitching make it one of the most long-lasting mouse pads on the market, while its broad area and good friction quality make it a great fit for serious gamers.
This extra-large mouse pad for gaming (and productivity, too) is designed to go under your keyboard and mouse as well, giving you more freedom of movement and the full range of motion with the mouse. It features a surface with superfine braided fiber material to get just the right friction balance for precise control and fast movements. This mouse pad’s large size also helps maintain stability for fast keyboard movements.
Like the smaller Victsing compact mouse pad (our #3 pick), this gaming mouse pad comes with a nonstick backing and beveled reinforced stitching around its edges for increased durability. It’s also virtually spill-proof. You can use your keyboard on the desk with lots of room if you don’t already use the best keyboard stand.
Award: Best for Work
WHY WE LIKE IT: Offering a high-quality cloth surface for precise gaming performance, a simple design, and a good size footprint for work or gaming, this no-frills mouse pad is an excellent value.
Billed as a mouse pad for gaming, this roughly 12.6 x 10.6-inch fine-fiber cloth mouse pad is a good size for most work desks. It comes with rubberized backing so that it stays put on any flat, hard surface, and it’s thin enough that it lets you move the mouse freely while offering enough friction for accurate placement. While it lacks some of the frills of the Victsing ergonomic mouse pad (our #4 pick), it’s also one of the less expensive full-sized mouse pads on the market.
Its simple design makes it relatively unobtrusive, and the surface texture is great for a mouse pad for work, whether you’re doing demanding graphics tasks, programming, web browsing, or clerical tasks.
Award: Best for Optical
WHY WE LIKE IT: Using a lighter-colored surface, this mouse pad can extend the battery life of your wireless mouse by a claimed 50% while affording maximum precision for optical sensors.
If you use a wireless optical mouse, this 3M Precise mouse pad for optical mice may extend its battery life by up to 50%. Backed up by lab testing, the 3M mouse pad’s lighter-colored, patterned surface allows optical sensor mice to draw less current, significantly boosting battery life compared to a dark surface.
The 3M Precise mouse pad’s unique pattern is designed to help reduce skips and loss-of-signal errors, providing the consistency that allows for faster mouse movements. This makes it great for productivity and multitasking.
In order to highlight the best mouse pads on the market, we looked at mouse pads that offered a good balance between smoothness for high-speed movements and texture for precision tracking.
We only picked mouse pads that worked well with both optical and laser mice. To that end, we made sure that these mouse pads reduced skip errors and signal loss.
Since the ideal mouse pad depends heavily on the use case and your own ergonomic preferences, we looked at a variety of the most common types of mousepads, including mouse pads for work, ergonomic mouse pads with wrist-rests, and extended mouse pads, as well as those designed for gamers and eSports.
We only considered mouse pads for gaming that featured a microfiber or densely woven polymer surface, a nonstick underside, and that were resilient to spills. For extended mousepads, a good non-stick backing was a must, as well as a width of at least 30 inches.
If you’re in the market for something a little more advanced, check out the Corsair MM1000 Qi Wireless Charging Mouse Pad. This wireless charging mouse pad lets you charge any Qi device wirelessly. This mouse pad also includes adapters (USB Micro-B, TYPE-C, lightning Qi) that enable you to charge other mobile devices as well. And the RGB lighting around the edge is a nice touch.
