Does a lower iterm_relax cutoff mean less relaxation?

No. A lower cutoff means I-term accumulation is suppressed earlier and held down for longer during a fast move. That is stronger relaxation. A higher cutoff releases I sooner, which suits racing and tight turns but can allow more bounceback after flips and rolls.

What is the difference between I-term bounceback and droop?

Bounceback happens after the move: the quad rotates back or oscillates once because the integrator wound up and is now unwinding. Droop happens while the stick is still held: the response settles below the commanded rate because I is not allowed to build, or because there is not enough I. They can be caused by the same setting in opposite directions.

Can I-term relax cause my quad to dip in fast turns?

Yes. Relax deliberately holds I down during fast setpoint changes. If it suppresses too early or for too long for your build and flying style, the quad can sag out of a sustained turn even though the tune looked fine in a hover. The log shows the response settling below the commanded rate while the stick is still held.

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Tuning guide

I-term relax: bounceback, droop, and the cutoff direction

Q: Should I use setpoint or gyro mode?

Betaflight's own documentation says setpoint mode is the default and that the gyro mode was a workaround for an older setpoint problem; pilots who moved to gyro mode should move back to setpoint mode on current firmware. Gyro mode still exists, but it is not the first thing to change when chasing a bounce.

I-term relax is one of the few settings that can fix a fault and create its opposite with the same slider. The cutoff also moves in the opposite direction to the way most people expect. Here is what it is doing.

1. What the I term is for

P reacts to the current error. D reacts to how fast the error is changing. I reacts to the error that has accumulated over time, which is what keeps the quad holding an attitude when a steady disturbance — wind, an off-centre battery, a bent arm — keeps pushing it off target.

That accumulation is useful in a hover and a liability in a fast move. If I builds up during a long roll, it is still pushing after the stick stops, and the quad rotates back past the point you asked for. That is bounceback. I-term relax exists to stop I accumulating during the fastest part of the move.

2. The cutoff moves opposite to intuition

A lower cutoff suppresses I earlier and holds it down for longer. A higher cutoff lets I come back sooner. So:

More bounceback than you want → you want stronger, longer suppression, which means a lower cutoff — not a higher one.
A quad that sags in sustained turns → suppression may be too strong or too long for the build, which means a higher cutoff, or a mode that lets I decay.

This is the single most useful thing to understand about the setting. If you raise the cutoff to cure bounceback, you are weakening the mechanism that was supposed to cure it.

Direction, not a number. The right cutoff depends on the build's authority, the flight style, the noise level and the firmware version. Betaflight publishes starting ranges for different classes; use those as a reference, then let the log tell you whether the response needs more or less suppression.

3. Bounceback vs droop

What you see	When	What it means
Quad rotates back or oscillates once after a flip or roll	After the stick has stopped	I wound up during the move and is unwinding. Relax is not suppressing it enough, or I itself is too high for the build.
Nose or attitude sags while the turn is still being held	During a sustained fast turn	I is not accumulating enough to hold the attitude. Relax may be suppressing too early or too long, or I is too low.
Fast ring during the move, not after it	While the stick is still moving	This is the P/D balance, not relax. Do not answer it with the relax cutoff.
Wobble only near idle	Throttle near the bottom	Thrust and idle, not the integrator. See the hard-stop guide.

The two faults are easy to confuse because both look like "the quad is not doing what I asked". The timing is the tell: after the move is bounceback, during a held turn is droop.

4. Reading it in the log

Find a move where the stick goes in fast and then stops. Zoom in on the gyro, the setpoint and the I-term trace.

I-term keeps rising through the move and stays high after the stick stops. That is the wind-up that produces bounceback.
Gyro crosses the setpoint after the move and comes back. That is the visible result of the same wind-up.
Gyro levels off below the setpoint while the stick is still held. That is droop, and it points the other way: the integrator is being held down, or there is not enough of it.
The step chart is unusable. Then you cannot tell which side of the trade you are on. Fix the log before changing the setting.

5. The modes, without the folklore

iterm_relax selects which axes are relaxed. Roll and pitch are the usual choice; yaw is usually left alone because yaw authority comes from motor inertia rather than thrust, and the behaviour is different. iterm_relax_type selects the signal used to detect a fast move: setpoint or gyro. Betaflight's documentation says setpoint is the default and that gyro mode was a workaround for an older setpoint problem, so current firmware should normally be on setpoint.

The _INC modes only stop I from increasing during the move; they still let it decrease when the offset is no longer needed. That can resolve the post-move offset faster than plain RP. It is a different trade from changing the cutoff, which is why it is worth separating "how early" from "how completely".

6. A decision order that does not fight itself

Rule out the non-integrator causes. A damaged prop, a loose arm, a motor desync and a low idle can all produce a post-move twitch. Relax will not fix any of them.
Decide which fault the log shows. Bounce after the move, droop during a held turn, or a fast ring during the move. Only the first two involve relax.
Change one thing. Cutoff, mode, or I gain — not all three in the same flight. If you change two, the next log cannot tell you which one helped.
Re-fly the same maneuver. A sustained turn for droop, a clean flick for bounce. A hover cannot show either.
Check the motors. Stronger suppression can hide a mechanical problem; it does not remove the heat or the wear.

7. What Easyquadtune does with relax

The analyser detects post-maneuver integrator activity and measures whether a chart-grade step settles below the commanded rate. It uses those two signals separately: one points toward stronger suppression, the other toward less. When both appear, the output says so rather than pretending there is a single direction that fixes both.

The relax policy is also profile-aware. A race tune wants I available quickly for tight turns; a freestyle or cinematic build can tolerate longer suppression. The tool starts from the logged value and the class baseline, then moves only when the log supports it. It does not publish a universal cutoff, because there is no universal quad.

Questions pilots actually ask

Does a lower cutoff mean less relaxation?

No. Lower means suppression starts earlier and lasts longer. That is stronger relaxation.

What is the difference between bounceback and droop?

Bounceback happens after the move, when the integrator unwinds. Droop happens while the stick is held, when the response settles below the command. The same setting can influence both, in opposite directions.

Should I use setpoint or gyro mode?

Betaflight's documentation treats setpoint as the default and says gyro mode was a workaround for an older setpoint issue. On current firmware, start from setpoint.

Can relax cause a dip in fast turns?

Yes. If it suppresses I too early or for too long for the build, the quad can sag in a sustained turn. The log shows the response below the command while the stick is still held.

Where these questions come from

Betaflight: I-term Relax Explained — the mechanism, the modes, and the known drawback of holding an old I offset.
Betaflight 4.0 Tuning Notes — the original setpoint/gyro cutoff explanation and the racing-versus-freestyle trade.
Betaflight 4.3 Tuning Notes — bounceback and low-throttle wobble as separate problems.
Betaflight CLI reference — the settings, their defaults and valid ranges.
Oscar Liang: FPV drone tuning in 10 steps — a widely used walkthrough of anti-gravity and I-term relax.

See which side of the trade your log is on

Easyquadtune measures post-move integrator activity and steady-state droop separately, then suggests a direction instead of a universal cutoff. First log is free per browser.

Analyse your log Or watch it work on a demo flight first

More guides: how to read a blackbox log, wobble on hard stops, overshoot vs droop, frame resonance vs prop noise, dips in fast turns, when a log is not good enough.

Easyquadtune is not affiliated with the Betaflight project. Always fly responsibly and perform an initial hover test in a safe environment after any tuning change. The worked example on this site is an illustrative render, not a customer log.