Test Your Internet Speed

How to read your results

An internet speed test measures how quickly data moves between your device and a test server. Your result includes download speed and upload speed, plus ping, jitter, and packet loss when those measurements are available.

Those numbers describe two different things. Download and upload are about how much data your connection can move. Ping, jitter and packet loss are about how quickly and reliably it moves. A connection can be strong on one and weak on the other.

People often use “bandwidth test” and “internet speed test” to mean the same thing. Technically, bandwidth is the capacity of a connection, while a speed test estimates the throughput your connection can deliver under the test conditions. In that sense this is a practical network speed test: it measures the path from your device to the test network and reports the results in Mbps and milliseconds. To focus on one direction, check your download speed on its own.

Is your internet speed good?

There is no single answer to what is a good internet speed. The right speed depends on how many people share your connection, how many devices are active, and what everyone is doing online. A person living alone who streams in HD can be perfectly happy on 25 Mbps. A household with four people, two 4K TVs, a gamer and someone on work calls will feel the strain at that speed.

The useful question is: what does everyone in your home do at the same time? Add up those activities, leave room for background updates, and compare that with your result.

For reference, the FCC’s 2026 Section 706 report uses 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload as its benchmark for fixed broadband in the U.S. That benchmark is used to track broadband availability; it is not a measure of what every household needs.

Our guide to what counts as a good internet speed works through common household types, and the internet speed chart shows what each tier from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps typically supports.

Download vs. upload speed

Download is data coming to your device; upload is data your device sends. Download is the direction most people use most: every video you watch and page you open is a download. Upload is the reverse: your camera feed on a call, photos syncing to the cloud, a file you attach to an email.

An asymmetric plan is fine until someone starts a large backup or a few people join video calls at once. So what is a good upload speed? It depends on what you send online. Video calls, cloud backups, large file uploads, and live streaming can all benefit from more upload capacity.

Compare download and upload speed in more detail

Ping, jitter and packet loss

These three numbers explain most “my internet is fast but it feels bad” problems.

• Ping is the delay for a small message to reach a server and come back. Lower is better, and games and calls feel most responsive when it stays low. Learn what ping means
• Jitter is how much that delay jumps around. Calls and games cope with a steady delay much better than an unsteady one. More on jitter
• Packet loss is data that never arrives. Even small amounts can cause glitches in live audio and games. More on packet loss

If ping rises sharply while the test is busy downloading, you may have bufferbloat.

Internet speed for common activities

These are the figures the services themselves publish, per stream or per call, not our own estimates. Multiply by the number of people doing each thing at once, and remember that meeting a figure does not guarantee smooth playback or a clear call if WiFi is unstable.

For gaming, an internet speed test is only part of the picture. Download speed matters for game downloads and updates, and cloud gaming services publish their own bandwidth and latency requirements. For multiplayer games, ping, jitter, and packet loss have a bigger effect on how responsive and stable play feels than Mbps does. Run a ping test, jitter test or packet loss test to look at each one, or read our guide to internet speed for gaming.

Full guides: speed for gaming · speed for streaming · speed for video calls · speed for multiple devices

How to get a more accurate result

Want to check your internet speed and get a number you can rely on? A single test is a snapshot, so a few simple habits make it more representative.

1. 1

   Test with a cable as well as WiFi. Ethernet can help isolate WiFi limitations, while a WiFi test shows the connection you actually use. Plug a laptop into the router to compare the two.

2. 2

   Pause other traffic. Stop downloads, cloud backups, game updates and streaming on other devices.

3. 3

   Close other tabs and apps on the device you are testing with.

4. 4

   Turn off your VPN unless you want to measure the VPN itself.

5. 5

   Test three times, a few minutes apart, and look at the typical result.

6. 6

   Test at different times of day, including the evening, when networks are busiest.

Step-by-step: how to test your internet speed, including how to record results to share with your provider, and how to test WiFi room by room.

Common causes of slow internet

• Weak WiFi. WiFi is a common cause of slow speeds in homes, especially when distance, walls, interference, or busy wireless networks limit the connection.
• Background traffic from other devices, especially updates, cloud backups and streaming.
• Network congestion at busy times on your provider’s network, often in the evening.
• An old router or device that cannot keep up with your plan.
• A modem or cabling problem inside your home.
• A provider-side issue, such as an outage or a fault on the line outside your home.

Why WiFi and Ethernet results differ

WiFi adds an extra wireless link between your router and your device, so a WiFi result is often lower than a wired one. Your internet provider delivers speed to your router; WiFi then carries data through the air, shares airtime with every other wireless device nearby, picks up interference from neighboring networks, and loses strength through walls and floors. Your device matters too, since an older laptop or phone may not support the faster WiFi standards your router offers.

If a wired result is close to your plan speed but WiFi is much slower, the fix is usually in your home network rather than your plan.

A speed test can act as a quick WiFi health check, but WiFi speed and WiFi signal strength are not the same measurement. Signal strength can affect the speed you receive, but a WiFi speed test measures the throughput reaching your device. To learn how to check WiFi speed around your home, use our room-by-room WiFi testing guide, or test your WiFi speed now. On cellular data instead? Use the mobile speed test.