Internet Speed Test

What this number means, and what it does not

• It measures your connection to this server, not to the internet in general. If this site is hosted far from you, some of what looks like slowness is distance.
• One connection, not twelve. The large testing services open many parallel streams to a nearby node, which is how they fill a fast line. This uses a few, so on a very fast connection it will read low. On anything up to about 100 Mbps it is a fair guide.
• Latency is the number that decides how fast things feel. A video call, a game or a page full of small requests care far more about it than about megabits. Under 50 ms is good; over 150 ms is felt.
• Jitter is how much latency varies. Steady is better than low-but-erratic: it is jitter, not latency, that breaks up a call.
• Wi-Fi, a VPN, another download or a busy phone all show up here. Test twice before believing a bad result.