Internet speed test — download, upload, ping and jitter

Run a speed test in your browser — no app, no mid-test ads

The Speed Test works by timing real transfers between your browser and a test server — it sends and receives throwaway test data to measure your line, and it never reads your files or anything personal. To get a fair reading: pause downloads, streams and cloud backups on all devices; sit reasonably close to the router (or plug in a cable); then press start.

The test runs download first, then upload, and reports ping and jitter from the same session — unlike fast.com, which hides everything except download behind a "more info" click. Expect a result like "87 Mbps down, 21 Mbps up, ping 24 ms, jitter 3 ms" in under a minute. Run it two or three times and take the middle result; single runs can catch a momentary dip.

What is a good internet speed?

"Good" depends entirely on what you do. Speeds are quoted in Mbps (megabits per second), and each activity has a threshold — above it, extra speed buys you nothing for that task:

• HD streaming: 5–10 Mbps per screen; 4K streaming: about 25 Mbps per screen.
• Video calls: 3–5 Mbps down and up — upload matters as much as download here.
• Online gaming: 10–25 Mbps is plenty; ping matters far more than bandwidth.
• Busy household (several streams, calls and downloads at once): 100+ Mbps.

What is a good ping?

Ping (latency) is how long a round trip to a server takes, in milliseconds — and for gaming and live calls it matters more than raw speed. Carbide's Ping tool measures it from your browser using timed HTTPS requests (not raw ICMP — we say so honestly), with live samples, jitter and loss for any host you type. As a rule of thumb:

• Under 50 ms — excellent: competitive gaming and calls feel instant.
• 50–100 ms — good: fine for almost everything, minor edge in fast shooters.
• 100–300 ms — noticeable: delayed hits in games, slight talk-over in calls.
• Over 300 ms — frustrating: laggy games, awkward pauses in every call.

Jitter and packet loss — why calls stutter

Jitter is the variation in ping between packets. A steady 60 ms connection often feels better than one that swings between 20 and 200 ms, because video and voice apps must buffer for the worst case — that swing is what you hear as robotic audio and see as frozen frames. Under 10 ms of jitter is solid; over 30 ms and real-time apps start to struggle.

Packet loss is data that never arrives and has to be re-sent. Even 2–3% loss makes calls clip words and games rubber-band. The Ping tool shows both jitter and loss as it samples, so you can tell a slow-but-stable line (fine for streaming) from an unstable one (bad for calls) — two problems a plain download number never reveals.

The quick health check: connection type, downlink and RTT

Sometimes you don't need a full test — just a one-glance answer to "what is my connection doing right now?". Network Info reads what your browser already knows: the effective connection type (like 4g), estimated downlink, round-trip time and whether data saver is on. Nothing is downloaded and nothing is sent anywhere — it simply displays the browser's own report, which makes it the fastest first check when a page feels slow.

Pair it with IP Info to see your public IP, ISP and location as the internet sees them (that one queries a lookup service to fetch the details — covered in what is my IP, explained). For the full walkthrough of these diagnostics, see the network tools guide.

Why speed test results differ between tests

Two tests, two numbers — that's normal. The biggest culprit is units: Mbps is megabits, MBps is megabytes, and 1 MBps = 8 Mbps, so a "100 Mbps" plan downloading at 12.5 MBps is performing exactly to spec. After that comes server distance (a nearby test server always beats a far one), Wi-Fi versus cable, how far you sit from the router, evening congestion, and other devices quietly eating bandwidth — who is on my WiFi? shows how to check that.

If the line tests fine but one game or site still lags, the problem may be along the route: the Traceroute tool in the Carbide app (coming soon) traces every hop, and WiFi Analyzer finds a clearer channel — more in mobile network diagnostic apps.

Frequently asked questions