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 the 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.