Resources Guides Help

Last Updated | May, 7 2026

Help

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Help

I don’t understand my results. They seem inaccurate.

Speedtest measures the speed between your device and a test server, using your device’s internet connection. Several factors involved in the test can result in unexpected speeds.

Browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, etc…) have different capabilities and may provide different results, particularly on high-speed connections. Using the Speedtest apps, instead of the website, usually provides more reliable results.

Devices (phones, tablets, PCs, etc…) can have very different Wi-Fi and cellular radio capabilities. Some devices may not be able to measure the full speed of your internet service. It’s also possible that your Wi-Fi router doesn’t support the full speed of your service.

Speedtest servers may perform better than others. Generally, you will get faster speeds from servers closer to you. We recommend testing to a variety of test servers to get the most complete picture of your speed.

Speed testing services use different servers in different locations than Speedtest, so differences in speeds are not uncommon.

What does changing the test server do?

Speedtest measures the speed between your device and a test server. When Speedtest starts, it automatically chooses a test server nearby with a fast ping time. It’s possible that a server further away has a much faster ping time than a server nearer to your location, so it gets selected. Ensure that you have location enabled for Speedtest in your device settings so it can find servers nearby.

Sponsored Servers: While some servers are sponsored by ISPs and mobile carriers, testing to those servers does not tell you how fast your connection would be if you were to sign up for their services. All Speedtests measure the speed of your current internet service.

Choosing a Server: For a more complete measure of your speed, we recommend testing to servers in various locations. Many streaming services and websites may host their content on servers all around the world. To change the server, tap the server name on the test screen to open the Change Server screen.

What do these terms mean? (Glossary)

Speed

Download
How quickly you pull data from a server on the internet to your device. The majority of online activity, like loading web pages or streaming videos, consists of downloads. Measured in megabits per second (Mbps).
Upload
How quickly you send data from your device to the internet. A fast upload speed is helpful when doing things like sending large files via email, or using video-chat to talk to someone else online. Measured in megabits per second (Mbps).

Responsiveness

Ping
Also called latency, or lag, ping is the reaction time of your connection—it’s how quickly your device gets a response after you’ve sent out a request. Measured in milliseconds (ms). During a Speedtest, we measure your ping at three stages:
- Idle
  We test your idle ping at the beginning of your Speedtest to measure the response of a request on your network as if it is not in use.
- Download
  During the download test we measure your ping to see how it is affected by download activity on your network. A common situation for receiving high download responsiveness might be a household member installing a large game.
- Upload
  During the upload test we measure your ping to see how it is affected by upload activity on your network. A common situation for receiving high upload responsiveness is a household member recording a video on their phone, and automatically uploading it to the cloud.
Jitter
Jitter is a measure of the variability in ping over time. High jitter is most noticeable as short interruptions during audio or video calls, or uneven disruptions while streaming or gaming. High jitter can be the result of packet loss, or poor prioritization between time-sensitive data and large data transfers. Jitter is measured in milliseconds (ms).
Packet loss
Packet loss occurs when a packet of data being sent over the internet is not received or is incomplete. Packet loss in most cases is result of poor signal/line quality. Packet loss is expressed in percentage of packets lost.

Mbps
Megabits per second. This is a standard unit of measurement for internet speed. There are 8 bits in a byte.

MB/s and kB/s
Megabytes per second and kilobytes per second. These are alternate units of measurement expressed in bytes, a standard measurement of file size.

I paid for ad removal, but I’m still seeing ads.

Go to Settings in the app and tap Remove Ads and then Restore. If restore fails:

Ensure that you’re using the same App Store account that you used originally for the purchase.
Ensure that you’re not behind any firewalls or work networks that might block access to Apple servers.
Try restarting your device and restoring purchases in the app again.
If it’s still not working, please contact Apple or Google Play Store for support.

Resources Guides Assessing test results

Last Updated | March, 30 2026

Assessing test results

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Assessing test results

I don’t understand my results. They seem inaccurate.

Speedtest measures the speed between your device and a test server, using your device’s internet connection. Several factors involved in the test can result in unexpected speeds.

What factors may impact my Speedtest result?

Speedtest measures the speed between your device and a test server, using your device’s internet connection. Several factors can impact the speed recorded by a test:

Browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, etc…) have different capabilities and may provide different results, particularly on high-speed connections.
Devices (phones, tablets, PCs, etc…) can have very different Wi-Fi and cellular radio capabilities. This means you might get one Speedtest result on one device and a different result on another, even using the same provider. Some devices may not be able to measure the full speed of your internet service. It’s also possible that your Wi-Fi router doesn’t support the full speed of your service.
Speedtest servers may perform differently. Generally, you will get faster speeds from servers closer to you. We recommend testing to a variety of test servers to get the most complete picture of your speed. Speedtest has the world’s largest testing server network, which means you will always have the benefit of testing to a server near your geographic location.
Other speed testing services use different servers in different locations than Speedtest, so differences in speeds between testing services are not uncommon.

What should I do if my internet speed is slow?

Before you contact your internet service provider (ISP) or mobile carrier, check to see if you’re running any ongoing downloads or other programs like video chat that might be hogging your bandwidth. Close those and test again. If your Speedtest result still seems slow, reboot your phone or computer, modem and router. Then make sure that your router does not have any Quality of Service (QOS) features turned on. If that doesn’t fix the problem, here are a few more steps you can try.

Contacting your ISP or carrier for help is a good next step after you’ve gone through these steps. Keep in mind that on higher bandwidth connections (150 Mbps and above), you will need a higher quality router to keep up.

Why am I getting different speeds between my computer and my phone/tablet?

Speedtest is measuring your real-time network connection, so tests taken within a few minutes of each other might vary a little based on network congestion and available bandwidth. If your Speedtest results are significantly different, make sure that you’re:

Testing the same connection. If one device is on Wi-Fi and the other is not, you’re testing the speeds of different connections.
Testing to the same server. Speedtest automatically selects a server to test to based on ping, but you can also select a server to test to.

Also, note that there are large variations in Wi-Fi and cellular radio quality and MIMO stream handling quality between devices. These variations can cause a device to deliver slower test results than another device or computer.

What speeds do I need for streaming or large downloads?

If you’re asking this question, you’re already sick of the wheel of constant buffering. To get the best possible performance, you generally want download speeds at least as fast as the following:

What speeds do I need to transfer large files?

You can transfer large files at any speed; it’s more a question of how long that transfer will take. Here are a couple of tables to help you out:

Time to transfer 1GB file

Transfer speed (Mbps)	Theoretical time (Seconds)
1.5	5,333
5	1,600
10	800
20	400
50	160
100	80
250	32
500	16
1,000	8

Data transferred per hour

Transfer speed (Mbps)	Megabytes	Gigabytes
1.5	675	0.675
5	2,250	2.25
10	4,500	4.5
20	9,000	9
50	22,500	22.5
100	45,000	45
250	112,500	112.5
500	225,000	225
1,000	450,000	450

What’s an acceptable ping (or latency) for online gaming?

If you’ve ever noticed that another player always seems to have the jump on you, that might be because they have a faster ping. Here’s a rough guideline:

Game over: 200+ ms
Winning: 0-59 ms
In the game: 60-129 ms
Struggling: 130-199 ms

What are Speedtest Experience ratings?

We have introduced four new Experience Ratings to Speedtest: Web Browsing, Online Gaming, Video Streaming, and Video Conferencing. These ratings help users better understand their Speedtest results and how they translate to real-world performance across a variety of common scenarios.

At the end of the Speedtest, each icon is assigned a 1-5 dot score (1: poor, 5: excellent), indicating the expected performance level for that activity. These icons represent online experiences that require varying levels of network performance.

New Experience Ratings and What They Mean

Web Browsing

General web activities such as browsing websites, scrolling through social media, and checking email require a stable internet connection but are the least demanding in terms of speed and latency. This icon reflects how well your network supports these everyday tasks.

Online Gaming

Playing games online—whether on a PC, console, or mobile device—requires a combination of sufficient download and upload speeds as well as low latency (Ping). High latency can cause lag, delays in player actions, and an overall poor gaming experience.

Video Streaming

The quality of your video streaming experience depends primarily on high download speeds and low latency. If latency is too high or speeds fluctuate, you may experience buffering, interruptions, or a reduction in video resolution.

Video Conferencing

For smooth video calls, both high download and upload speeds are important. Low latency is crucial for keeping video and audio in sync, whereas excessive latency can lead to delays, choppy video, and distorted or out-of-sync audio.

Interested in seeing your Speedtest Experience Ratings? Take a Speedtest to find out!

Resources Guides Assessing accuracy

Last Updated | March, 30 2026

Assessing accuracy

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How can I determine the quality of my connection?

Your Internet connection’s speed is only part of the picture! To reliably use services such as streaming media, voice over IP or online gaming, your connection’s quality is also important. That’s why Speedtest.net as well as the Android and iOS apps measure ping in addition to download and upload speeds.

Also called latency, or lag, ping is the reaction time of your connection—it’s how quickly your device gets a response after you’ve sent out a request. Measured in milliseconds (ms).

During a Speedtest, we measure your Ping at three stages:

Idle: We test your idle ping at the beginning of your Speedtest to measure the response of a request on your network as if it is not in use.

Upload: During the upload test we measure your ping to see how it is affected by upload activity on your network. A common situation for receiving high upload responsiveness is a household member recording a video on their phone, and automatically uploading it to the cloud.

Download: During the download test we measure your ping to see how it is affected by download activity on your network. A common situation for receiving high download responsiveness might be a household member installing a large game.

What speeds do I need to transfer large files?

ou can transfer large files at any speed; it’s more a question of how long that transfer will take. Here are a couple of tables to help you out:

Time to transfer 1GB file

Transfer speed (Mbps)	Theoretical time (Seconds)
1.5	5,333
5	1,600
10	800
20	400
50	160
100	80
250	32
500	16
1,000	8

Data transferred per hour

Transfer speed (Mbps)	Megabytes	Gigabytes
1.5	675	0.675
5	2,250	2.25
10	4,500	4.5
20	9,000	9
50	22,500	22.5
100	45,000	45
250	112,500	112.5
500	225,000	225
1,000	450,000	450

What’s an acceptable ping (or latency) for online gaming?

If you’ve ever noticed that another player always seems to have the jump on you, that might be because they have a faster ping. Here’s a rough guideline:

Game over: 200+ ms
Winning: 0-59 ms
In the game: 60-129 ms
Struggling: 130-199 ms

How does Speedtest measure my network speeds?

Speedtest.net operates mainly over TCP testing with a HTTP fallback for maximum compatibility. Speedtest.net measures ping (latency), download speed and upload speed.

TCP Test Components

Latency/Jitter

This test is performed by measuring the time it takes for the server to reply to a request from the user’s client. The client sends a message to the server, upon receiving that message, the server sends a reply back. The round-trip time is measured is measured in ms (milliseconds).
This test is repeated multiple times with the lowest value determining the final result.

Download

The client establishes multiple connections with the server over port: 8080. The client requests the server to send an initial chunk of data.
The client calculates the real-time speed of the transfers, then adjusts the chunk size and buffer size based on this calculation to maximize usage of the network connection.
As the chunks are received by the client, the client will request more chunks throughout the duration of the test.
During the first half of the test, the client will establish extra connections to the server if it determines additional threads are required to more accurately measure the download speed.
The test ends once the configured amount of time has been reached.

Upload

The client establishes multiple connections with the server over the defined port and sends an initial chunk of data.
The client calculates the real-time speed of the transfers and adjusts the chunk size and buffer size based on it to maximize usage of the network connection, and requests more data.
As the chunks are received by the server, the client will send more chunks throughout the duration of the test.
During the first half of the test, the client will establish extra connections to the server if it determines additional threads are required to more accurately measure the upload speed.
The test ends once the configured amount of time has been reached.

HTTP Legacy Fallback Testing

Latency

This test is performed by measuring the time it takes to get a response for a HTTP request sent to the web server
This test is repeated multiple times with the lowest value determining the final result.

Download

Small binary files are downloaded from the web server to the client to estimate the connection speed
Based on this result, one of several file sizes is selected to use for the real download test
The test is performed with cache prevention via random strings appended to each download
Throughput samples are received at up to 30 times per second
These samples are then aggregated into 20 slices (each being 5% of the samples)
See bottom of document for details to fill here (see * below for more detail)
The remaining slices are averaged together to determine the final result

Upload Test

A small amount of random data is generated in the client and sent to the web server to estimate the connection speed.
Based on this result, an appropriately sized chunk of randomly generated data is selected for upload.
The upload test is then performed in chunks of uniform size, pushed to the server-side script via POST.
We’ll use up to four HTTP threads here, as well, to saturate the connection.
Chunks are sorted by speed, and the fastest half is averaged to eliminate anomalies and determine the result.

Deciding the number of threads

Speedtest.net will use up to four HTTP threads during the download and upload portions of the test. However, it will only use more than two threads if they are needed to accurately measure the speed, so as to minimize the effect of HTTP overhead on lower-speed connections. After the pre-test, if the connection speed is at least 4 megabits per second, then Speedtest.net will use four threads. Otherwise, it will default to two threads.

However, there is a hurdle on older browsers: Internet Explorer 7 (or earlier) and Firefox 2 (or earlier), the browser strictly adheres to the HTTP specification of only two threads per hostname. To scale up to four threads in these older browsers, we must open the third and fourth thread to a secondary URL provided by the host that points to the same server. This way, we can work around the limitations of those older browsers and still measure higher-speed connections accurately. Most of our hosts do have a working secondary URL, but if you’re testing from an older browser to a host that doesn’t, Speedtest.net will be limited to two threads at maximum. This is one reason why we recommend that all visitors use up-to-date browsers.

How results are calculated

All samples are sorted by speed. The two fastest results are removed and the bottom 1/4 which is left (which is approximately 22% of the total). Everything else is then averaged.

Resources Guides Downloading apps

Last Updated | March, 30 2026

Downloading apps

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Where can I download Speedtest apps?

The official Speedtest by Ookla apps are available across the digital storefronts for every major platform: you can find the free applications in the Apple App Store (for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV), the Google Play Store (for Android), and the Microsoft Store (for Windows), ensuring you can check your network speeds on virtually any device, from your pocket to your TV screen.

What features are only available on the Speedtest apps?

Here are the features only available on the Speedtest applications:

Downdetector Integration: Allows you to check the real-time status of popular online services (like streaming platforms or social media) to instantly see if a service-wide outage—not just your internet—is causing issues.

Speedtest Maps: Provides crowdsourced maps that visualize mobile carrier coverage and performance in your area, helping you find the best connected spots.

Video Test: A specialized tool that measures your network’s capacity for streaming by testing factors like maximum achievable resolution (e.g., 4K, 1080p) and load time, giving you a real-world score for video quality.

Why do my speeds vary between my computer and other mobile devices?

The algorithm used on the Speedtest.net website and the Speedtest.net app are very similar, so the difference in speeds is probably due to one of these outside factors:

Differences in hardware: If you’re both on a Wi-Fi connection, know that phones and tablets typically have less sophisticated Wi-Fi antennae than larger devices like laptops. This difference may negatively impact your phone’s Wi-Fi speed, especially in areas of high interference on the 2.4 Ghz Wi-fi frequency.

Differences in available bandwidth: Make sure that the tests don’t overlap each other, as each test needs to have your entire bandwidth to itself. Additionally, make sure nothing else is downloading at the same time.

Differences in connection: Make sure the phone and your computer are actually testing on the same connection. You may have Wi-Fi turned off, and accidentally be testing your cellular speeds instead.

Resources Guides Adjusting servers

Last Updated | March, 30 2026

Adjusting servers

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Adjusting servers

What does changing the Speedtest server do?

Speedtest relies on a network of over 5,500 host servers owned and operated by internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile carriers around the globe. By default, Speedtest chooses a nearby server with a fast ping result, trying to reach the maximum potential of your internet connection.

For a more complete measure of your speed, test to other servers in various locations. Many sites and streaming services may host their content on servers that are far away from your current location, which could translate to slower speeds and pings from those services.

Testing to our sponsored servers does not necessarily tell you how fast your connection would be if you were to sign up for that sponsor’s services. All tests run on Speedtest reflect the speed of your connection from your current ISP or carrier.

Though our host network is always growing, it’s possible that we don’t yet have a host in your area. See details about hosting a Speedtest server.

Why aren’t there any servers in my area?

Your computer’s firewall or a proxy server might be blocking communication over port 8080, which will limit the number of servers available for testing.

Last Updated | March, 30 2026

Can I change the Speedtest scale?

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Can I change the Speedtest scale?

The Speedtest® scale can be changed on the Android and iOS apps. From the initial GO screen, swipe the bottom drawer up. From here, you’ll have 3 options for the maximum scale display.

Desktop users can change units (i.e. Mbps to Kbps) on the website, but the scale or gauge on the website can not currently be modified.