Internet Speed Test: Download, Upload and Ping

Three things differ between testers. The server: many services pick one inside your provider's network, which is shorter than the route to ours. The number of connections: this test opens up to four in Chromium browsers and two in Safari and Firefox, while some services open eight. And the moment: Wi-Fi speed changes second by second. Switch to "Single" to compare with single-connection tests, and repeat over a cable to rule out Wi-Fi.

The first two seconds of each transfer, while connections speed up, are not counted. The rest is split into 20 time slices; the slowest 30% and the fastest 10% are discarded and the remaining slices are averaged — the same rule Ookla publishes for Speedtest. The live curve shows every slice, including the dips.

Download and ping go to the nearest Cloudflare data center, so they measure your line rather than a long route. Upload goes through Cloudflare to our server in the Netherlands, which means that far from Europe the upload figure also includes that distance. The data center used is shown under the gauge.

It is how much ping rises while the line is full. The test measures it over a separate connection that carries no data, so the rise comes from queues in your router or at your provider. Grades follow the common scale: A+ under 5 ms, A under 30, B under 60, C under 200, D under 400, F above.

About 20 seconds of your full speed: roughly 250 MB at 100 Mbps and over 2 GB at 1 Gbps. The exact amount is shown after the test. On mobile data this is worth keeping in mind.

While the tab is open, the tool runs a short test every 15, 30 or 60 minutes, saves each result to the history and can send a browser notification when the speed falls below the chosen share of your plan. If the computer sleeps or the tab is closed, checks pause. Monitoring and the PDF report are part of Premium.