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Internet Speed Test — Download, Upload, Ping and Jitter

Measure download, upload, ping and jitter — then find out what the numbers actually mean

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Takes about 20 seconds. Runs entirely in your browser — no app, no plugin, nothing to install.

What Is a Good Internet Speed?

In March 2024 the FCC raised its benchmark for fixed broadband to 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload, up from the 25/3 standard that had stood since 2015. That is the closest thing to an official answer. The more useful answer depends on how many people share the line and what they do at the same time.

Download speed What it comfortably supports
Under 5 MbpsBrowsing and email. Video buffers, calls struggle.
5 to 25 MbpsOne person. HD streaming, one 4K stream at the top of the range.
25 to 100 MbpsA couple or small family. Several HD streams, calls, normal downloads.
100 to 500 MbpsA full household. Multiple 4K streams, gaming and large downloads together.
Above 500 MbpsThe connection stops being the bottleneck. The limit moves to your Wi-Fi, your device or the remote server.

What Mbps Actually Means — and the Factor of Eight

Mbps is megabits per second. File sizes are in megabytes, and there are eight bits in a byte. That single conversion causes more confusion about internet speed than anything else: a 100 Mbps connection downloads at about 12.5 MB/s at its theoretical best, not 100 MB/s. When your browser shows a file downloading at 11 MB/s on a 100 Mbps line, nothing is wrong — that is the line running at full speed.

The quick conversion: divide Mbps by 8 to get megabytes per second. 50 Mbps is about 6 MB/s. 400 Mbps is about 50 MB/s. A gigabit connection tops out near 125 MB/s.

How Many Mbps Do You Need?

Add up what runs at the same time, using the figures the services themselves publish. Everything else is guesswork.

Activity Recommended
Netflix in 4K15 Mbps per stream
Netflix in 1080p5 Mbps per stream
YouTube in 4KAbout 20 Mbps
Zoom, 1080p callAbout 3.8 Mbps each way
Online gamingUnder 5 Mbps, but low and steady ping
Cloud backup10 Mbps upload or more

Two 4K streams and a video call comes to roughly 35 Mbps. Gaming is the surprise on this list: it needs almost no bandwidth, but it is the activity most sensitive to ping and jitter.

Ping and Jitter: Why a Fast Connection Can Still Feel Broken

Ping is how long a packet takes to reach a server and come back. It is independent of speed — a gigabit satellite link can have terrible ping, because much of it is simply the distance travelled. Under 20 ms feels instant, under 50 ms is comfortable for gaming, and past 150 ms the delay becomes noticeable in anything interactive. Every browser test measures to its own server, so part of the figure is simply the distance to it — which is why a result is most useful compared against itself over time.

Jitter is how much that ping varies from one moment to the next, and it is the number that explains the most common complaint of all: my speed test looks fine but my calls keep breaking up. Voice and video need packets to arrive evenly spaced. When they arrive in bursts, the call clips words and freezes even though the average speed is perfectly good. Under 5 ms is very stable; above 30 ms you will hear it.

Why Is My Wi-Fi Slow?

A speed test measures the entire path from your device to the server, and Wi-Fi is usually the weakest link in it — not the line you pay for. The common causes, in roughly the order they bite:

  • •Distance and walls. Signal falls off quickly, and brick, concrete and foil-backed insulation cost far more than open air.
  • •The 2.4 GHz band. It reaches further but is slower and crowded, shared with microwaves, baby monitors and every neighbour. The 5 GHz band is much faster over shorter distances.
  • •Other devices. One backup or console update in the background will take whatever is available.
  • •An older router. A device on Wi-Fi 4 cannot deliver a gigabit line no matter what the plan says.
  • •Peak-hour congestion. Cable connections are shared locally, so evening results can be markedly lower than morning ones.

The diagnostic that settles it takes two minutes: run the test over Wi-Fi, then run it again with an Ethernet cable. If the cable is much faster, the problem is inside your home and no provider can fix it for you.

How to Get a Result You Can Trust

  • 1.Use an Ethernet cable if you have one, to measure the line rather than your Wi-Fi.
  • 2.Pause downloads, backups and streams first — anything else using the connection is subtracted from your result.
  • 3.Test more than once, at different times of day. One result is a snapshot of one moment on a shared network.
  • 4.Compare like with like. A test against a distant server will always show higher ping, so results from different tools are not directly comparable.
  • 5.If you are chasing a Wi-Fi problem, test beside the router first to find the ceiling, then test where you actually sit.

Go Deeper

How This Test Works

The test opens several connections at once to the nearest edge server and moves real, random, incompressible data over them — random because a block of zeros would compress in transit and report a speed your line cannot actually deliver. Bytes are counted as they arrive rather than assumed from what was requested, so a truncated or retried request cannot inflate the result.

The first stretch of every measurement is discarded. A TCP connection does not start at full speed, it ramps up, so timing from the very first byte understates a fast connection badly — and the faster the line, the worse the understatement. Latency is reported as the lowest of fourteen round trips, because a single sample can only be inflated by a busy moment, never reduced below the true path time. Nothing is installed, and no file from your device is ever sent.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good internet speed?▼
The FCC raised its fixed broadband benchmark to 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload in March 2024, so 100/20 is the current official answer for a household. In practice it depends on how many people share the line: 25 Mbps is enough for one person streaming and browsing, 100 Mbps comfortably covers a family with several 4K streams, and above about 500 Mbps the connection stops being the limiting factor for almost everything.
What does Mbps mean?▼
Mbps is megabits per second — how much data your connection moves each second. The important detail is bits, not bytes. There are 8 bits in a byte, so a 100 Mbps connection downloads at roughly 12.5 megabytes per second at best. That factor of eight is why a 100 Mbps line appears to download a 1 GB file at 12 MB/s rather than 100 MB/s, and it is the single most common source of confusion about internet speed.
Is 100 Mbps good?▼
Yes for most households. 100 Mbps is exactly the FCC broadband benchmark and supports around six simultaneous 4K streams, or a mix of streaming, video calls, gaming and downloads without anyone noticing the others. It becomes limiting only with very large frequent downloads, many heavy users at once, or if your upload is capped low alongside it — which is common on cable plans advertised as 100 Mbps.
What is a good upload speed?▼
The FCC benchmark is 20 Mbps up. Around 10 Mbps is comfortable for HD video calls and cloud backup, and about 5 Mbps is the practical floor for a stable 1080p call — Zoom asks for roughly 3.8 Mbps each way. Upload matters more than most people expect because video calls, cloud sync and sending files all depend on it, and cable connections typically offer far less upload than download.
What is ping?▼
Ping, or latency, is how long a small packet takes to travel to a server and back, measured in milliseconds. It is separate from speed: a fast connection can still have high ping. Under 20 ms is excellent and feels instant, under 50 ms is comfortable for gaming, and past about 150 ms the delay becomes noticeable in anything interactive. One caveat applies to every browser-based test including this one: the figure includes the distance to the test server, which for some regions is 50 to 100 ms before your own connection is counted at all. Compare results from the same tool over time rather than between different tools.
What is jitter?▼
Jitter is how much your ping varies between one measurement and the next. Low ping with high jitter is what causes calls to break up while a speed test still looks fine — the average is good, the timing is not. Under 5 ms is very stable, under 15 ms is normal, and above 30 ms you should expect clipped words on calls and stutter on live video. High jitter is usually Wi-Fi interference or another device competing for the connection.
How many Mbps do I need?▼
Count what runs at the same time and add up the providers own figures. Netflix recommends 15 Mbps per 4K stream and 5 Mbps for 1080p, YouTube asks about 20 Mbps for 4K, and Zoom wants roughly 3.8 Mbps each way for a 1080p call. A household with two 4K streams and a video call needs about 35 Mbps, so a 100 Mbps plan leaves comfortable headroom. Gaming needs very little bandwidth but low, stable ping.
Why is my Wi-Fi slow when my plan is fast?▼
Because the speed test measures the whole path, and Wi-Fi is usually the weakest part of it. Distance from the router, walls, older 2.4 GHz connections, and neighbouring networks on the same channel all cost far more than people expect. The way to tell them apart is to run the test twice: once over Wi-Fi and once with an Ethernet cable. If the cable is much faster, the problem is your Wi-Fi, not your provider.
Why is my result lower than the speed I pay for?▼
Providers advertise the maximum the line can carry, measured at the router, and several things sit between that and your device: Wi-Fi, other people on the connection, your device own network adapter, and congestion at peak hours. A result within about 20 percent of your plan over a cable is normal. Consistently far below it, on a cable, at a quiet time of day is worth raising with your provider.
How do I get an accurate speed test result?▼
Use an Ethernet cable if you can, close anything else that uses the connection, pause cloud backups and downloads, and test more than once at different times of day. A single result is a snapshot of one moment on a shared network. If you only have Wi-Fi, test next to the router first to establish what the line can do, then test where you normally sit to measure what Wi-Fi is costing you.
Does this speed test need an app or plugin?▼
No. It runs entirely in your browser using standard web requests, so there is nothing to install and no Flash or Java involved. The test sends and receives real data against the nearest edge server and measures how quickly it moves, which is the same thing a native app would do.
Is my data or IP address stored?▼
No. The data transferred during the test is random filler that is generated and discarded, never anything from your device. Your IP address and approximate location are shown to you because the server can see them, but they are not logged or stored. Your recent results are kept only in your own browser, and clearing your browser data removes them.

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