1. A method comprises: receiving a data segment retrieval request regarding a data segment of a plurality of data segments, wherein the data segment is encoded in accordance with a dispersed storage error coding function to produce a set of encoded data slices, which is stored in a set of dispersed storage (DS) units of a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory; and in response to the data segment retrieval request: processing the data segment retrieval request; determining pre-fetch segment buffering information based on the data segment, content of a pre-fetch segment buffer, a data consumption rate, and DS unit response rate; and when the pre-fetch segment buffering information indicates pre-fetching one or more other data segments of the plurality of data segments: generating one or more pre-fetch segment retrieval requests for the one or more other data segments; receiving, in response to the one or more pre-fetch segment retrieval requests, one or more sets of at least a decode threshold number of encoded data slices; decoding, in accordance with the dispersed storage error coding function, the one or more sets of at least a decode threshold number of encoded data slices to reproduce the one or more other data segments; and updating the pre-fetch segment buffer with the one or more other data segments.