Internet Speed Test

How to test your internet speed

1. Pause anything else using the connection: downloads, game updates, cloud backups and video on this device or others at home.
2. Press Start speed test. The page measures ping first, then download for about 10 seconds, then upload for about 8 seconds.
3. Read the Download and Upload results in megabits per second (Mbps), and the Ping and Jitter in milliseconds.
4. Check Ping while downloading and the Bufferbloat grade: a big rise means calls and games lag whenever someone else uses the internet.
5. For a fair picture, test a few times at different hours and once with a cable instead of Wi-Fi. Your last ten results are listed under the test.

What the results mean

• Download (Mbps) is how fast data reaches you: streaming, web pages, game downloads. 25 Mbps handles one 4K stream; a family that streams, games and calls at the same time is comfortable from about 100 Mbps.
• Upload (Mbps) is how fast you send data: your video in calls, cloud backups, posting videos. 3 Mbps is enough for an HD call; many home plans upload far slower than they download.
• Ping is the time for a small message to reach the test server and come back. Under 20 ms is excellent, 20 to 50 ms is good, 50 to 100 ms is fine for most things, and over 100 ms is noticeable in fast games.
• Jitter is how much the ping changes from one message to the next. Under 10 ms is smooth; over 30 ms causes choppy calls and rubber-banding in games.
• Ping while downloading and uploading shows what happens when the line is full. If ping jumps from 15 ms to 300 ms, your router lets a queue build up. That is bufferbloat, graded A+ (under 5 ms extra) to F (over 400 ms extra).

The test runs against the nearest Cloudflare data centre (named under the results), which is close to most people, so the numbers show what your line can do. Speeds to a far-away server, or to a busy website, can be lower.

Why your speed test result is lower than your plan

Internet plans are sold as "up to" a speed, and several things sit between that number and what you measure:

• Wi-Fi. The biggest cause by far. Walls, distance and neighbours on the same channel can cut a 500 Mbps line to 50 Mbps in the next room. Test once with a network cable or next to the router; if the cable result is close to your plan, the line is fine and the Wi-Fi is the limit.
• Other devices. A console downloading an update or a phone backing up photos takes a share of the line while you test.
• The device itself. Older phones, laptops with 100 Mbps network ports and browsers busy with many tabs cannot always reach gigabit speeds.
• Busy hours. Evenings from about 7 to 11 pm are peak time on cable and shared fibre networks. A big drop only at those hours points to congestion at your provider.
• VPNs. A VPN routes traffic through its own servers, which adds distance and often caps speed. Test with it off to compare.

Mbps, MB/s and how the test works

Speeds are shown in megabits per second (Mbps), the unit providers use. Download progress in a browser or game launcher is usually in megabytes per second (MB/s). There are 8 bits in a byte, so divide Mbps by 8: a 100 Mbps line downloads at about 12.5 MB/s.

The test opens several connections at once and downloads data for about 10 seconds, then uploads for about 8. The first couple of seconds are left out because connections need a moment to speed up. While data flows, a small message is timed every 0.4 seconds to measure the loaded ping. The data is random filler: nothing on your device is read or sent, and the test server only sees the requests, like any website you visit. Your last ten results stay in this browser only.

Common problems and fixes

Speed is much lower on Wi-Fi than on a cable

Move closer to the router, or lift it off the floor and out of cupboards. Use the 5 GHz or 6 GHz band for speed (2.4 GHz reaches further but is slower). In large homes a mesh system or a wired access point beats a plug-in extender.

Ping jumps when someone else uses the internet

That is bufferbloat. Turn on Smart Queue Management (SQM), "QoS" or "Adaptive QoS" in the router settings, and set it to about 90% of your measured speeds. Many recent routers have this; the grade usually improves to A or B.

Speed is fine on the cable but slow in the evenings

Test at several hours over a few days and keep the results (they are listed under the test). A consistent drop at peak time is congestion on the provider's side; send them the list.

The test does not start or stops with an error

Some ad blockers, firewalls and school or office networks block speed test servers. Allow speed.cloudflare.com, or try another network to compare.