Broadband speed test
Check your broadband speed
Download, upload, ping and jitter in about 20 seconds, then a plain-English verdict on what your connection can handle and how it compares with what you pay for.
Takes about 20 seconds. Uses about 75 MB of data on a 50 Mbps line and more on faster ones, so take care on capped mobile data.
Your results
Press Start the test to measure your connection.
Are you getting what you pay for?
Your bill or welcome email shows the speed of your package. Your provider should also have given you a minimum guaranteed speed when you signed up.
Enter your package speed, then run the test to compare.
Your recent tests
The last 10 tests on this device, so you can compare times of day and WiFi with a cable.
| When | Download | Upload | Ping | Jitter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No tests yet. | ||||
Slower than expected? Try this first
- Plug a laptop into the router with a network cable and test again. If that’s much faster, the problem is WiFi, not the line.
- Pause anything else using the internet: streaming, game downloads, cloud backups and phone updates.
- Restart the router, wait two minutes and test again.
- Move the router off the floor and away from the TV, mirrors and fish tanks, or add a mesh point for far rooms.
- Test at a quiet time (morning) and a busy time (8 to 10pm) to see whether the slowdown is congestion.
How this broadband speed test works
When you press Start, your browser talks to a small test server on Cloudflare’s network, usually in London or Manchester for UK connections. It measures four things in turn.
Ping is how long a tiny message takes to reach the server and come back, in milliseconds. The test sends 20 of them and reports the middle value. Jitter is how much those times vary from one message to the next. Low ping and low jitter matter most for gaming and video calls, where a delay is noticeable even on a fast line.
Download is how fast data reaches you, in megabits per second (Mbps). The test opens four connections at once and pulls random data for about eight seconds, making each request bigger until it takes at least a second. The first second is ignored while the connection warms up, so the result is the speed you held for most of the test rather than one lucky peak. Upload works the same way in the other direction and is what counts for video calls, sending large files and cloud backups.
Speeds are in megabits, not megabytes. Divide by eight to get megabytes per second, so a 100 Mbps line downloads about 12.5 MB every second.
For the truest result, plug a computer into the router with a cable, close anything else using the internet and run the test a few times at different times of day. WiFi through walls, an old phone or a busy evening can all make a line look slower than it is. If the cable result is still well below what you pay for, keep a note of each test, because your provider will ask for it.
Questions
What is a good broadband speed?
For one or two people browsing and streaming in HD, 30 Mbps is plenty. A household streaming 4K on several screens, gaming and working from home will notice the difference with 100 Mbps or more. Upload matters if you send large files or make lots of video calls: 10 Mbps or more is comfortable.
Why is my result lower than the speed I pay for?
Advertised speeds only have to be available to half of customers at peak time and they are measured to the router, not over WiFi. WiFi, older devices, other people using the connection and the busy evening hours all pull a result down. Test on a cable plugged into the router to see what the line itself delivers.
What can I do if my broadband is slower than promised?
When you signed up your provider should have given you a minimum guaranteed speed. If you are regularly below it, test on a cable, keep a note of the results and tell your provider. Under Ofcom’s broadband speeds code of practice, which most large providers have signed, they have 30 days to fix a problem with their network and if they can’t you can leave your contract without paying a penalty.
Is this speed test accurate?
It measures the connection between your device and Cloudflare’s nearest data centre, which is where a large share of UK websites are served from, so it reflects everyday use well. Different speed tests use different servers and methods, so their results vary. Use the same test each time to compare like with like.
Do you store my results or IP address?
No. The test server counts the test data and throws it away. Your provider’s name and the server location are read from the connection and shown only to you. Your last 10 results are saved in your browser so you can compare them and you can clear them at any time.