Check Download & Upload Speeds

How many people in your household use the internet/WiFi on a daily basis? Plus, you need at least 2Mbps for every passive device connected to your home network, like AI-driven speakers and smart thermostats. Next, add extra bandwidth for all your other devices that can’t stream video, like thermostats and smart speakers. # of devices streaming 4K video25MbpsSlow150MbpsModerate2100MbpsAverage4250MbpsFast10500MbpsVery fast201,000Mbps+Extremely fast40+ According to data pulled from our How Much Speed Do You Need tool, the average respondent has six devices and is suggested an internet speed of 100Mbps.

Your download speed () is fasterslower than the average speed of other – customers. If your household regularly experiences buffering, lag, or dropped calls, the root cause is often a plan that hasn’t kept up with the number of people and devices sharing it. Remote workers dealing with large file transfers, cloud storage syncing, or 666rs game VPN access benefit significantly from 100 Mbps or more and fast upload speeds, which are common with fiber internet. If you’re on a plan that no longer meets your household’s needs, it’s worth searching for and comparing internet providers in your area. As a rule of thumb, count the number of devices likely to be active at the same time, not just the people in your home.

You can improve your internet speed by restarting your equipment, updating your equipment’s firmware, restarting your devices, or upgrading to a faster plan. A household with 4 people and 15+ connected devices will consistently underperform on a 100 Mbps plan, even if usage seems light. The right internet speed for your household depends on how many people are connected and what they’re doing at the same time. If you’re consistently seeing 50% or more below your plan speed, that’s worth investigating, or it may be time to compare what other internet providers and plans are available in your area. You need a faster router if it’s outdated, failing, can’t handle all of your devices, or has an internet port that’s slower than the plan you have. Where ping measures round-trip time, jitter measures how consistent that timing is. An internet speed test measures your internet connection’s performance and provides results for download and upload speed, latency, and jitter.

However, keep in mind that the internet port on the router you choose needs to be faster than the plan you have. The latest Wi-Fi specification is version 7, so now is a good time to upgrade if you’re sporting a Wi-Fi 5 router. Speed may be slow because you’re using the internet at peak times, or your router may be outdated. If you absolutely must run the test over a Wi-Fi connection, make sure you're connected to the 5 GHz or 6 GHz band if your plan is faster than 200Mbps. Your download speed () is fasterslower than the average speed in -.

Speeds typically range from 100Mbps to 50,000Mbps (50Gbps) both ways, meaning the uploads are normally just as fast as the downloads. Wi-Fi 7 is best, honestly, but Wi-Fi 6E also works if your devices can access the 6 GHz band. We can walk you through 10 steps to improve your internet speed in just 15 minutes. For example, there may be issues with the provider’s service area, like faulty connections somewhere within the neighborhood. Some internet providers state “up to” when advertising maximum speeds because many variables can prevent you from hitting that top speed. What you see on the speed test is simply where your internet speeds are at that moment. By default, band steering can force your devices to use the 2.4 GHz band if it’s the stronger connection, so your results may be far lower than expected. Does your household download large files from the cloud or via the internet?

An equipment test (also called a modem or gateway test) isolates the speed between your modem and your provider’s network, showing the raw speed entering your home before Wi-Fi is a factor. A device speed test measures the full connection from your phone or laptop to the internet, including Wi-Fi signal quality, device hardware limits, and network congestion. Even if you’re paying for 500 Mbps, an older device with a dated Wi-Fi adapter may only connect at 100–150 Mbps. A household running three 4K streams simultaneously needs at least 75–100 Mbps just for video. Smart TVs, tablets, security cameras, smart speakers, and game consoles all consume bandwidth. High jitter causes packets to arrive out of order or unevenly, resulting in choppy audio, stuttering video, and lag spikes in games. Jitter is the variation in the time between data packets arriving at your device.

Our speed test provides unbiased results by pinging a speed test server located outside your internet provider's network. The time (measured in milliseconds) it takes for a signal to travel from your device to an internet server and back. You can also enter your zip code below to compare internet providers in your area—it may be time to upgrade. If your plan speed is high but device speeds are consistently low, the issue is almost certainly your equipment, not your service. Routers older than 3–4 years often lack support for Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E, which offer faster and more reliable performance. If you’re still experiencing slow speeds, your router hardware may be the bottleneck. In either case, it may be worth exploring a faster plan or a different provider. If none of these steps help and speeds remain consistently below your plan’s advertised rate, the problem may lie with your provider or your equipment.