How accurate is this internet speed test?
It measures real transfers over your actual connection using eight parallel streams to a Cloudflare endpoint, discards the first second while TCP ramps up, and falls back to other providers if Cloudflare is blocked. That makes it comparable to any other browser-based test. What no browser test can do is bypass your Wi-Fi, your device or the browser itself, so treat the number as the speed available to this device right now rather than the speed on your line.
Why is my speed lower than the plan I pay for?
Almost always Wi-Fi rather than the line. A plan is sold as the speed to your router; what a laptop in another room sees after walls, interference and an older Wi-Fi standard can be a fraction of it. Test again with an Ethernet cable, or standing next to the router, and compare the two numbers before contacting your provider.
What is a good internet speed?
For one person browsing and streaming HD, 25 Mbps is comfortable. A household with 4K televisions and several people working wants 100 Mbps or more. Beyond about 200 Mbps most people stop noticing improvements, because the bottleneck moves to the servers you are talking to rather than your connection.
What do download and upload speed actually mean?
Download is how fast data reaches you, which decides streaming, browsing and downloads. Upload is how fast data leaves you, which decides video calls, cloud backups and sending large files. Most home connections are deliberately asymmetric, with upload a small fraction of download.
What is ping and why does it matter?
Ping is the round trip time for a small packet, in milliseconds. It has nothing to do with bandwidth: a very fast connection can still have terrible ping. It is what decides whether a video call feels natural and whether an online game is playable, so it matters more than raw speed for anything interactive.
What is jitter?
Jitter is how much the ping varies from one packet to the next. Steady 60 ms is fine; a ping that swings between 20 ms and 200 ms has high jitter and will break up calls and live video even though the average looks acceptable. Under 20 ms is comfortable for calls.
Why is my upload speed so much lower than download?
Because that is how most home broadband is designed. Cable and DSL reserve far more capacity for download because that is what households mostly do. Fibre connections are often symmetric, with upload matching download. A very low upload only becomes a problem when you make video calls or back up large files.
Does Wi-Fi slow down my internet speed?
Yes, often substantially. Distance, walls, interference from neighbouring networks and older hardware all reduce what reaches your device. The most useful diagnostic is to run this test once over Wi-Fi and once over Ethernet: if the wired result matches your plan, the problem is your Wi-Fi rather than your provider.
How can I make my internet faster?
Move closer to the router or use Ethernet, switch to the 5 GHz band if your router offers one, restart the router, and check nothing else on the network is downloading in the background. If the wired speed is still well below your plan, the issue is with the line or the provider and is worth reporting.
Why does my speed change every time I test?
Real connections vary with network congestion, what else is using your connection, and which server you reach. Run the test a few times at different moments and use the pattern rather than any single number. The tool keeps your recent results so you can see that pattern.
Does this speed test use my data allowance?
Yes. A full test transfers real data — typically tens to a few hundred megabytes depending on how fast your connection is, because a faster line moves more data in the same fixed time. On a metered or mobile connection, run it sparingly.
Is my speed test result sent anywhere?
No. The test runs in your browser and the results are stored only in your own browser's local storage so you can compare runs. Nothing is uploaded to ToolAdda and there is no account. The measurement traffic itself necessarily goes to a public test endpoint, which is how any speed test works.
Which servers does the test use?
It measures against Cloudflare's public speed endpoint by default. If that is unreachable — some corporate and school networks block it — it automatically falls back to large incompressible files on a public CDN, and then to other public endpoints. The result panel names the provider that was actually used.
Why does the test need incompressible files?
Because a compressed text file would be sent over the network in a small compressed form and then expanded by the browser. Counting the expanded bytes would report a speed several times higher than the real transfer. This test deliberately uses already-compressed data, such as JPEG images, so the bytes counted are the bytes that actually crossed the network.
Do I need to close other apps before testing?
It helps. Anything else downloading, syncing or streaming is competing for the same connection and will lower your result. For a clean measurement, pause large downloads and cloud backups first.
Can I test the speed on my phone?
Yes, the test works the same on a phone or tablet. Bear in mind it will measure your Wi-Fi or mobile connection as your phone sees it, and that a mobile test consumes data from your plan.
What is Mbps, and how is it different from MB/s?
Mbps is megabits per second and is how internet plans are sold. MB/s is megabytes per second and is what a download manager shows. There are eight bits in a byte, so a 100 Mbps connection downloads at about 12.5 MB/s at best — which is why a fast plan can look slow in a download window.
Do I need to install anything to run this test?
No. It runs entirely in your browser with no app, plugin, sign-up or Flash. Open the page and press start.