Broadband speed checker
Find out how fast this computer is really downloading, and whether that’s enough for what your household actually does.
What this does and doesn’t measure
- It measures download speed for real by downloading a file from this website and timing it. The number is a measurement, not an estimate.
- Response time and steadiness are real too — taken from a dozen round trips to our server.
- It does not measure upload speed. Measuring uploads needs something at our end to receive the data, and this website is deliberately simple. We’d rather leave it out than guess at it.
- Your results stay in your browser. We don’t collect or store them. The test downloads a file from this site, which our server sees as an ordinary page request, the same as any page you visit.
Getting a fair reading
Test on a wired connection if you can, or standing next to the router. If the speed is much better next to the router than it is in your armchair, the problem is your Wi-Fi, not your broadband — and that’s usually cheap to fix.
Also: stop anything streaming first, and bear in mind a very old computer can be the bottleneck rather than the line.
Is it well below what you pay for?
Dig out your bill and compare. Providers quote an average speed you should be getting. If you’re consistently well under it, you have grounds to complain — and under Ofcom’s rules you may be able to leave without a penalty.
Talk it through — 0330 111 0114Slow computer, or slow broadband?
They feel identical and they’re fixed completely differently. If the speed here looks fine but everything still crawls, it’s the computer — and that we can sort.