Upload speed, also called upstream speed, is how fast you can send data out: your camera on a video call, photos backing up to the cloud, a video you post, a file you share. On many plans it is a small fraction of download, so it is often the first thing to run out. The test above makes upload the headline number and shows download, ping, jitter and packet loss alongside it.
What does an upload speed test measure?
An upload speed test estimates how quickly data can travel from your device to a test server under the conditions at that moment. The result, shown in Mbps (megabits per second), is your upload throughput: the rate at which data was actually sent during the test.
That is not quite the same as upload bandwidth, which is the capacity of the connection. People often call this kind of check a bandwidth test or a bandwidth speed test, but the measured upload rate can fall short of capacity because of WiFi, your router, your device, a busy provider network, other uploads in your home or the route to the test server.
So treat the result as a snapshot of this moment, not a fixed property of your line.
Upload speed vs. download speed
Download is data coming to you: watching video, loading pages, downloading files and updates. Upload is data leaving your device: sending files, cloud backups, posting videos, live streaming, and your side of every video call.
Most homes download far more than they upload, which is why plans are usually built that way. To compare both directions, run the download speed test, or read more about download vs. upload speed.
What is a good upload speed?
There is no single upload speed that is good for everyone. It depends on what you send, how often, and how many people in your home do it at once:
- video calls and screen sharing, especially several at the same time;
- working from home with cloud apps and shared files;
- regular cloud backups of photos and videos;
- live streaming, where upload has to keep up in real time;
- the size of the files you send and how quickly you need them to arrive.
A household that mostly browses and makes the occasional call needs little upload. Two people on video calls while a phone backs up its camera roll need much more, and a creator streaming live needs more again. Our complete guide to choosing a good internet speed walks through both directions for different households.
Upload speed by activity
The middle column shows what each service publishes. The last column is our practical guidance, not an official requirement.
| Activity | Published figure | Practical note |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1 video call, 720p | 1.2 Mbps up/down (Zoom) | Per call; add more for each call in the home |
| Group video call, 1080p | 3.8 Mbps up (Zoom); 4 Mbps for best performance (Microsoft Teams) | Stability matters as much as speed |
| Live streaming, 1080p 30 fps | 5 Mbps minimum, 14 Mbps recommended with H.264 (YouTube Live) | Leave headroom above your stream bitrate |
| Cloud backup and photo sync | No requirement | Uses as much as it can get, often for hours |
| Sending large files | No requirement | More speed means shorter waits |
Video calls
On a call your device sends your camera video, your microphone audio and anything you share on screen. If upload runs short, others see you freeze or blur even when you can see them fine. Call quality also depends on download speed, latency, jitter, packet loss and a stable WiFi link. See internet speed for video calls.
Live streaming
Streaming to YouTube Live, Twitch or similar platforms means sending video in real time at a set bitrate. Higher resolution and frame rate need a higher bitrate. YouTube’s published figures range from a few Mbps for 720p to tens of Mbps for 4K. As a practical rule, keep your stream bitrate well below your measured upload so a dip in speed doesn’t cause dropped frames. A steady connection matters as much as a high number.
Cloud backups and large files
Photo and video backups, online storage and device sync all depend on upload. A connection with fast download and slow upload can take hours to back up a phone’s videos that it could download in minutes. Backups also tend to run in the background, quietly using all available upload. The file transfer table further down shows theoretical times.
Working from home
Remote work leans on upload more than most home use: Zoom or Teams meetings, screen sharing, cloud apps, sending large files and backups, often at the same time. There is no single work-from-home figure; add up what happens at once. See internet speed for working from home.
Gaming
Games send small amounts of data, so upload speed rarely limits gameplay on its own. Multiplayer responsiveness depends much more on ping, jitter and packet loss, and a busy upload (a backup or a stream) can raise ping for everyone. If gaming feels unstable, check your ping, jitter and packet loss, or read internet speed for gaming.
What affects upload speed?
No single factor is always to blame. The usual suspects:
- Your plan and network technology. The plan sets the upload ceiling, and the type of connection shapes it (see below).
- Provider congestion. Shared networks can slow down at busy times.
- WiFi. Distance, walls and interference reduce what a wireless device can send. Phones and laptops have weaker transmitters than routers, so WiFi upload often suffers before download does.
- Router and modem. Older or overloaded equipment may not keep up with a fast plan.
- Your device and browser. A busy or older device, browser extensions or a VPN can limit the result.
- Other uploads. Cloud sync, video uploads, security cameras and other devices share the same upstream capacity.
- The test path and destination. The route to the server matters, and when you upload to a real service, that service may cap each upload.
Symmetric vs. asymmetric internet speeds
A symmetric connection offers similar upload and download speeds, such as 500/500 Mbps. An asymmetric connection offers much more download than upload, such as 300/20 Mbps.
Many consumer connections are asymmetric. Cable and DSL plans often have upload that is a small fraction of download. Many fiber plans offer symmetric or more balanced speeds, though not all do. Fixed wireless and mobile internet vary widely with signal, distance and how busy the network is.
Actual upload depends on your provider, plan, network design, congestion, equipment and local conditions, so compare your own results with your plan rather than with a general rule.
WiFi vs. Ethernet
On WiFi, your device has to transmit every bit of upload through the air to the router, so distance and walls can hit upload hard. A wired test can help show what the connection can deliver without WiFi being a limiting factor.
If wired upload looks right but WiFi upload is much lower, the fix is in your home network. Test your WiFi speed where you work, or follow our guide to testing WiFi around your home.
Are you getting the upload speed you pay for?
The upload figure on your plan and the result an application measures are not necessarily identical. In the U.S., providers publish broadband labels that show the typical upload speed for each plan, and that typical figure is the fairest comparison.
Results can differ because of WiFi, the router or modem, the device’s Ethernet port, background uploads, provider congestion, the test server and route, and protocol overhead. To compare fairly:
- Find the typical upload speed on your plan or broadband label.
- Connect a computer to the router with a cable.
- Pause backups and uploads on every device.
- Run the test three times, including once in the evening.
If those wired results are consistently well below the typical figure, you have specific numbers to show your provider.
How to get a more accurate upload speed test
- Pause cloud backups and sync apps on every device.
- Stop large file uploads and video uploads.
- Close bandwidth-heavy apps.
- Test on the device you actually care about.
- On WiFi, test near the router as well as where you normally sit.
- Compare with an Ethernet result if you can.
- Run several tests, and test at different times if you suspect congestion.
No single method is perfect; a few consistent results tell you more than one number.
Why upload speed can change
Each test measures your connection under one particular set of conditions. Upload can shift from test to test with:
- time of day and congestion on your provider’s network;
- WiFi interference and your distance from the router;
- router load, background sync and other devices;
- the network route, the server, and how busy your device is.
What to do if your upload speed is too slow
- Run the test again to rule out a one-off.
- Stop background uploads and pause cloud sync.
- Test on WiFi near the router.
- Test with an Ethernet cable if possible.
- Compare another device.
- Compare results at different times of day.
- Check your plan’s upload rate. The result may be normal for your plan.
- If the problem persists, contact your provider with your recorded results.
For more help, read how to fix slow internet and how to improve your internet speed.
How upload speed affects file transfers
Speed tests report megabits per second (Mbps); file sizes and upload progress bars use megabytes (MB). One byte is 8 bits, so divide Mbps by 8 to get megabytes per second. As a theoretical conversion, 10 Mbps is about 1.25 MB/s, 50 Mbps about 6.25 MB/s and 100 Mbps about 12.5 MB/s.
| Upload speed | Time |
|---|---|
| 5 Mbps | About 4.4 hours |
| 20 Mbps | About 67 minutes |
| 100 Mbps | About 13 minutes |
| 500 Mbps | About 2.7 minutes |
Real uploads are usually slower. Protocol overhead, limits at the receiving server, network congestion, WiFi, your device’s processor and the app itself can all stretch the time.
What does your upload result mean?
Rather than a score, compare your result with what you do:
- A lower result can still be enough for browsing, messaging and a typical video call, as long as nothing else is uploading at the same time.
- A moderate result gives room for calls alongside light background sync.
- A higher result helps with frequent cloud backups, large file uploads, live streaming and several upload-heavy activities at once.
If your upload looks fine but calls still stutter, look at jitter and packet loss in the results above. If you’re unsure where your number sits, the internet speed chart shows what each tier typically supports.
How this test works
The test runs in your browser using Cloudflare’s open-source measurement engine and Cloudflare’s network. This site is independent and is not affiliated with Cloudflare.
After the download test, your browser sends blocks of data to the test server, starting small and growing to 50 MB per request. Each upload is timed, and the result is the 90th percentile of those measurements, the same method as for download. While it uploads, the test also keeps measuring ping, to see how much delay builds up when your upload is busy.
Every number comes from your own test. Read our speed-test methodology for the details.