Internet Speed Test

What is an internet speed test?

A speed test measures how quickly data moves between your device and a nearby server on the internet. It transfers a known amount of data, times it, and reports the rate. Running one tells you what your connection is actually delivering right now, which is often different from what your plan advertises.

The result describes the whole path — your device, your Wi-Fi, your router, your provider's network and the route to the test server. A slow result identifies that something on that path is limiting you, not which link it is.

What is download speed?

Download speed is how fast data arrives at your device, measured in megabits per second (Mbps). It governs streaming quality, page load times, and how long file downloads and software updates take. It is the number providers advertise, because it is the one most people notice.

Note the unit: 8 megabits equal 1 megabyte. A 100 Mbps connection downloads at roughly 12.5 megabytes per second, which is why a download manager's figure looks eight times smaller than your plan.

What is upload speed?

Upload speed is how fast data leaves your device. It matters for video calls, sending large files, cloud backups, live streaming and hosting anything from home. Many connection types — particularly cable and older DSL — are deliberately asymmetric, giving far less upload than download. Fibre is usually symmetric.

Upload is the most commonly underestimated metric. A household with fast download but 10 Mbps upload will still struggle with several simultaneous video calls.

What is latency?

Latency, or ping, is the round-trip time for a small packet, measured in milliseconds. It describes responsiveness rather than capacity. Under 30 ms feels instant; 30–70 ms is fine for almost everything; above 150 ms makes video calls awkward and competitive gaming frustrating.

Bandwidth and latency are independent. A satellite link can offer high bandwidth alongside 600 ms latency, which is why it works for streaming and not for calls.

What is jitter?

Jitter is the variation in latency between packets. If successive packets take 20 ms, 22 ms and 21 ms, jitter is low and the connection is stable. If they take 20 ms, 90 ms and 35 ms, jitter is high — and real-time applications suffer even when the average looks acceptable.

High jitter is what causes robotic audio and stuttering video on a connection whose speed test results look fine. Below about 30 ms is generally comfortable.

What affects internet speed?

• Wi-Fi versus Ethernet. Wi-Fi is shared radio; a cable is not. A wired test is usually markedly faster and far more consistent.
• Distance from the router. Signal strength falls off quickly, and walls, floors and appliances all absorb it. The 5 GHz band is faster but has shorter range than 2.4 GHz.
• Network congestion. Other devices in your home compete for the same connection, and providers see peak-hour load in the evening.
• Your provider and plan. The technology matters as much as the number — fibre, cable, DSL and fixed wireless behave very differently, especially on upload.
• VPNs and proxies. Encryption plus a longer route costs both throughput and latency.
• Device performance. An old network adapter, a saturated CPU or a background sync can cap the result well below what the line can carry.
• Server location. The nearer the test server, the lower the latency. This test uses Cloudflare's network, which has points of presence in most major cities.

How to get an accurate result

1. Connect by Ethernet if you can, or sit close to the router on 5 GHz.
2. Stop other downloads, streams and backups first.
3. Close unnecessary browser tabs, which compete for CPU.
4. Run the test a few times at different hours — a single measurement is a snapshot.
5. Disable your VPN while testing, then re-enable it to measure its cost separately.

Privacy and where the data goes

The measurement runs entirely in your browser against Cloudflare's edge network. IPGet's servers transfer none of the test data — there is no speed test endpoint on our infrastructure and nothing is proxied through it. Results are shown to you and discarded when you leave the page; reporting to Cloudflare's own results endpoint is switched off in our configuration.

The connection details shown above come from the same IP detection used elsewhere on IPGet. To dig further, try the IP lookup or check your IPv6 connectivity.