Why Your Speed Test Doesn't Match Your Plan
It's one of the most common internet frustrations: you pay for 500 Mbps but your speed test shows 200. Usually nothing is broken — here's what's happening.
WiFi is the #1 culprit
Your plan speed is measured at the wall. WiFi loses a big chunk of that to distance, walls and interference. Test wired with Ethernet to see your true line speed, then test on WiFi to measure the gap.
Your device's limits
Older phones, laptops and even Ethernet ports (some are capped at 100 Mbps) can't physically reach gigabit speeds. The bottleneck is the device, not the connection.
Other devices using bandwidth
Downloads, updates and 4K streams running elsewhere eat into your test result. Pause them for an accurate reading.
Peak-hour congestion
Cable connections share local capacity, so evening speeds can dip. Test at different times.
How to get an accurate test
Use a wired connection, close other apps, test on a modern device, and run our test a few times. If you're wired, alone on the network, on a capable device and still far below your plan, that's worth raising with your ISP — bring the results.
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