How to test your internet speed
- Close apps that might be downloading in the background — cloud backups, game updates, streaming on another device.
- Press Start test. NetSpeedly measures your ping first, then download speed, then upload speed. It takes about 25 seconds.
- Read your results, then check the list underneath to see what your connection can comfortably handle.
- Run it again at a different time of day. Speeds often drop between 8 pm and 11 pm when everyone in your area is online.
What the numbers mean
Download speed
How fast data reaches you, in megabits per second (Mbps). It decides how quickly websites load, how sharp your streaming video is, and how long a game or file takes to download. Most of what people do online is downloading.
Upload speed
How fast you can send data. It matters for video calls, sending large files on WhatsApp or email, posting videos, live-streaming and cloud backups. On most home connections upload is much lower than download — fibre is the main exception.
Ping (latency)
The round-trip time for a tiny message, in milliseconds (ms). Under 20 ms is excellent, 20–50 ms is good, and above 100 ms you may notice delay in games and calls. Ping depends heavily on distance, which is why NetSpeedly tests against the nearest data centre.
Jitter
The average change in ping from one message to the next. Steady connections have jitter under 5 ms. High jitter causes robotic voices in calls and “rubber-banding” in games, even when your ping looks fine.
Ping under load and the bufferbloat grade
NetSpeedly also measures ping while your connection is busy downloading and uploading. If it jumps a lot, your router is queuing too much data — called bufferbloat. It explains why games lag whenever someone else starts a Netflix stream. A grade of A or A+ means the connection stays responsive under load.
How fast should your internet be?
| Activity | Download needed | Upload needed |
|---|---|---|
| Browsing, email, social media | 1–5 Mbps | 1 Mbps |
| HD video (1080p) per stream | 5–8 Mbps | — |
| 4K video per stream | 15–25 Mbps | — |
| HD video call | 3–4 Mbps | 3 Mbps |
| Online gaming | 3–10 Mbps | 1–3 Mbps (ping under 50 ms matters more) |
| Working from home with large files | 50+ Mbps | 10–20+ Mbps |
Add up what everyone in your home does at the same time. Our guide What is a good internet speed? has recommendations by household size.
Why your speed might be slower than expected
- Wi-Fi: walls, distance and neighbours’ networks can cut speed by half or more. Try the test next to your router, or with a cable. Our Wi-Fi speed guide covers the fixes.
- Your device: older phones and laptops often can’t go beyond 100–300 Mbps over Wi-Fi.
- Other users: another device streaming or downloading shares the same connection.
- VPNs and proxies: traffic takes a longer route and is encrypted twice. Turn the VPN off to measure your real line speed.
- Peak hours: evenings are busiest for most providers.
- Your router: an old router, or one that hasn’t been restarted for months, can hold your connection back.
How NetSpeedly measures
When you press start, your browser connects to the closest of Cloudflare’s data centres. It first sends 20 tiny requests to measure ping and jitter. Then it downloads data over several parallel connections for about 10 seconds, counting every byte as it arrives, and repeats the process for upload. The first second of each phase is ignored while the connection ramps up, and unusually slow or fast samples are trimmed, so one hiccup doesn’t distort the result. Upload is counted only once the server confirms it received the data, which prevents the inflated upload numbers some tests show on slow connections.
Speeds are shown in megabits per second (Mbps), the unit internet providers use. Switch to MB/s (megabytes per second) to see roughly what your browser shows during a download — read Mbps vs MB/s for the difference.
Frequently asked questions
How accurate is NetSpeedly?
NetSpeedly measures against Cloudflare’s network, which has data centres in more than 300 cities, so the test server is usually in or near your own city. It opens several connections at once, ignores the first second while the connection speeds up, and drops outlier samples — the same approach used by the major speed tests.
Why is my result lower than the speed in my internet plan?
Plans advertise the maximum speed to your home. Wi-Fi, an older phone or laptop, other devices using the connection, and busy evening hours all reduce what you see. For the truest result, test on a computer connected to the router with a cable while nothing else is downloading.
What is a good internet speed?
For one or two people, 25–50 Mbps download handles HD streaming, video calls and browsing. Busy households with several 4K streams or gamers are happier with 100 Mbps or more. Upload of 10 Mbps or more makes video calls and cloud backups smooth.
What do ping and jitter mean?
Ping is how long a tiny message takes to reach the server and come back, in milliseconds. Jitter is how much that time varies from one message to the next. Low ping and low jitter matter most for gaming and video calls.
How much data does a speed test use?
Between about 50 MB on slower connections and up to around 800 MB on very fast fibre, because the test sends and receives data for about 10 seconds in each direction. On a limited mobile plan, run it only when you need to.
Does the test work on mobile data?
Yes. It works in any modern browser on Android, iPhone, Windows, Mac and Linux, over mobile data, Wi-Fi or a cable — no app required.
Do you store my results or IP address?
No. Your results are saved only in your own browser so you can see your history. NetSpeedly has no server of its own that receives them.