Broadband speed test
Test the speed of your current broadband connection.
What is my current broadband speed?
A simple online test will tell you the broadband speed you currently receive.
You will not need to download any software to run broadband speed tests − ignore any prompts asking you to do so.
Use any of these free online tools to check the speed of your connection:
Speed test accuracy
Speeds might vary according to the time of day, time of week or other factors. It is worth repeating the test to record the range of speeds you receive.
Multiple computers accessing the internet through the same connection will slow the speed so only use one machine to get an accurate reading. Don't touch the keyboard or mouse while the test is running.
What speed do I need?
It depends what you want to do.
If you're just browsing the web and want access to your email, a download speed of 512 kilobits per second will be enough.
For watching streamed video − such as BBC iPlayer or ITV Player − you will need at least two megabits per second (mbps) and 3.5 mbps for high definition.
You may need a faster connection if you want to use your connection to work from home and if you want to publish information online, such as video, you'll need a faster upload as well as download broadband connection.
Related documents
The following document is in Portable Document Format (PDF). You can download the PDF software for free from the Adobe website (opens in a new window)