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TabBench

Internet Speed Test

Measure your internet download and upload speed, latency, jitter and how responsive the connection stays under load. Quick and full tests, with what your speed is good for.

Runs a test against Cloudflare's speed-test servers, which see your IP address like any website you visit. Nothing you type is involved, and results stay on your device.

What the Internet Speed Test does

An internet speed test answers a simple question, “how fast is my connection right now?”, but a single download number hides the things that decide whether video calls stutter and games lag. This test measures four: download and upload throughput using several parallel streams, idle latency and jitter, and latency while the connection is busy. The last is bufferbloat, the extra delay that appears when something else is downloading. It runs in your browser against Cloudflare's public test servers and tells you what your speed is good for.

How to test your internet speed

  1. Close other downloads, streams and video calls, and if you can, use a cable or sit close to your Wi-Fi router.
  2. Choose Quick for a check of about 15 seconds that uses up to roughly 90 MB, or Full for faster connections.
  3. Press Start test and wait while it measures latency, then download, then upload.
  4. Read the results: speed, ping, jitter and how responsive the connection stays under load.
  5. Check “What this speed is good for” to see whether it suits streaming, calls, gaming and uploads, and run it again at different times of day to compare.

Runs a test against Cloudflare's speed-test servers, which see your IP address like any website you visit. Nothing you type is involved, and results stay on your device.

When to use it

Checking what you pay for

Compare the measured speed with your plan on a wired connection, at different times of day, to see whether a problem is your provider or your Wi-Fi.

Diagnosing laggy calls and games

A fast connection with high latency or heavy bufferbloat still feels slow. The under-load reading shows whether the router queues traffic badly.

Testing a new router or mesh setup

Run the test in different rooms to find weak spots, and again after changing channels or moving the router.

Good to know

  • Wi-Fi is usually the bottleneck. Test wired to see the line's real speed.
  • A VPN adds a detour and lowers speed. Turn it off for a baseline.
  • Results vary with time of day and the route to the test server. Take several readings.
  • Bufferbloat is fixed on the router with SQM or smart queue management, where the firmware supports it.
  • A browser test is capped by the browser and device. Very fast lines may show lower numbers than a native app.

Guides that use this tool

Frequently asked questions

Why is my result lower than the speed my provider advertises?

Advertised speeds are maximums. Results depend on Wi-Fi signal, other devices, your router, time of day, a VPN and the route to the test server. For the best reading, use a cable, pause other downloads and run the Full test.

What is the difference between Mbps and MB/s?

Providers quote megabits per second (Mbps); file downloads show megabytes per second (MB/s). There are 8 bits in a byte, so 100 Mbps is at most 12.5 MB/s. Use the unit switch to see either.

How much data does the test use?

The Quick test moves up to about 90 MB in total and is fine for most connections. The Full test runs longer and can use several hundred megabytes on a fast line, so avoid it on mobile data.

What is a good internet speed?

About 25 Mbps handles 4K streaming and video calls for one or two people. Busy households with several users benefit from 100 Mbps or more. For gaming, low latency (under 50 ms) and steady jitter matter more than raw speed.

What is jitter?

How much latency varies from one measurement to the next. A connection with low average ping but high jitter feels choppy in calls and games.

Does the test share my data?

It exchanges test data with Cloudflare's speed-test servers, which see your IP address like any site you visit. The page does not send anything else, and your recent results are kept only in your browser.

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