How does an internet speed test work?

Speed tests work by measuring your computer's connection to the network server. They report your download and upload speeds, ping and jitter to give you an idea of how well your connection performs.

Why do my internet speed test results change so much each time I check it?

Your internet speed varies across the day depending on how many devices you might be using, what activities you're performing on those devices and how many other people are using your network. You can get a more accurate internet speed test by: Conducting several tests across the day and calculating an average Test the connection from multiple devices (to rule out speed being a device issue) Conduct the test via an ethernet cable instead of over Wi-Fi

Ping is the term for how long it takes your computer to get a response from the network. The faster the response, the lower the ping number you'll get. One way to think about it is like waiting for someone to answer the phone. Low ping is equivalent to someone picking up the phone on the first ring. Keep in mind: While download and upload speeds will be fairly consistent, ping will fluctuate often. Most people don't need to worry about ping too much. When does ping matter? Ping won't matter in most instances except for: Online gaming Voice and video calls

Jitter is a measurement of how your ping changes over time . If you get a high jitter, it means your connection is unstable. This might mean you have bad wiring or might be using a mobile network. Like ping, jitter is measured in ms. Example: If your speed test returns a jitter of 3ms and a ping of 10ms it means your ping is jumping between 7ms and 13ms.

What can I do about slow internet?

If your internet connection is slow or not performing as well as you want, you can take several actions. Reposition your modem . Modem/router signals are strongest the closer you are without any interference. Being further across the room from your modem or having walls between you can result in a weaker signal and slow speeds. Putting your modem up high rather than on the floor should help too. If moving closer to your modem or moving it closer to you doesn't help then consider investing in a better router, a Wi-Fi extender or wire in with an ethernet cable. Reduce network congestion . Having too many people online at one time can cause a "traffic jam". This is more prominent at lower speed tiers. If you have an important work meeting asking another household member to pause their Netflix for an hour could help. If your household isn't the problem it might be a provider problem. Compare and switch to an internet service with better typical evening speeds . You can also hop off your broadband connection and swap over to your mobile's personal hotspot if your plan allows it. Replace or upgrade your equipment . When nothing else works, it might be your equipment itself. Compare to find a new router – just make sure it's supported by your provider. You can also try running a virus scan, updating your network drivers or closing background applications.

Speed test [ALL internet types]: Results in 30 secs

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Works for all connection types (NBN, ADSL, wireless internet, mobile)
Results in under 30 seconds
Compatible with all internet providers

What do your results mean?

Now that your download speed test results have come through, here's how you can workout if they're any good.

Depending on which NBN speed tier you're signed up to, the average speeds to expect are as follows:

NBN speed tier	Average speeds	Poor speeds
Basic I (NBN 12)	10–12Mbps	0–10Mbps
Basic II (NBN 25)	20-25Mbps	0–202Mbps
Standard (NBN 50)	40–50Mbps	0–40Mbps
Fast (NBN 100)	90–100Mbps	0–90Mbps
Superfast (NBN 250)	240-250Mbps	0–30Mbps
Ultrafast (NBN 1000)	300-800Mbps	0–300Mbps

What if your speeds aren't great?

If your results are sitting in the "poor" range for your speed tier, you may not be getting what you pay for. You have 2 options:

Make sure your house is set up right. You might need to move your router, or find new ways to use the net more efficiently. Watch the video below for more on that.
Call your NBN provider and see if they can help. If they can't, consider switching internet providers.

How do I speed up my internet? (video)

Hey, I'm Toby and welcome to Finder Facts, the show where we take your burning questions and answer them on the internet.
Today's facts, how to make my internet faster.
The demand on Australia's broadband network has never been higher.
Home schooling, working from home, entertainment in the house, it's all pulling at the bandwidth.
While there is not much you can do about the general speed in your neighbourhood, you can take action within your home.
I'm joined by Finder's Entertainment Editor, Chris Stead, to fix your internet.
First up, Chris, for people who don't understand bandwidth, what does that mean? Yeah, look, bandwidth, technical term, but quite easy to understand really.
If you can imagine a pipe that's going in and out of your house and you're trying to jam as much internet information down that pipe as possible, the more you're trying to get in there at the one time, the harder it is for it to get through and that kind of slows it down.
If you can imagine as well that that pipe may be kinked in a few spots, that can also slow down internet speed.
So we're going to talk you through now how you can actually get more down that pipe to begin with and how you can remove some of those kinks.
So given all that, what are some quick ways that we can improve the speed? Well, the number one thing to look at is your router, especially if you haven't updated your router for a number of years.
So the router is where the internet connection comes into your house and it usually joins to some sort of box, a modem or a router.
I mean that blasts the Wi-Fi around your house.
Now, Wi-Fi standards improve.
The standard being kind of like the model or most recent standard is 802.11n, but the old routers used to work on 802.11a and b.
And if you are using an old router, then you are pumping out at a low speed the possible internet and your device is, your modern device is, your modern laptop, your modern phone, your modern tablet, they're going to be working on 802.11n.
In fact, if you really want to be on the tip of the iceberg, there is the latest 802.11ac standard, which is fast at even again.
And the very latest devices will probably be using that standard.
Technology just never stops progressing.
So if you are there for using an old router, you are sending out a speed that is slower than what your device can actually use.
And therefore your router is bottlenecking it.
We do have a comparison of routers on the finder website that you can go through if you need to upgrade, but that's a great place to start.
Another good thing to look at is where your Wi-Fi router is placed inside your house.
There are things that can obstruct the speeds.
For example, water.
You wouldn't want to have it on, you know, something like a water tank or a shower or something like that between where your router is and where your work computer is.
Metal is another big one.
So if you know where the steel infrastructure in your house is, or if you've got a microphone or a fridge or something like that between where your Wi-Fi router is and where you're working, that's going to also affect the speed.
Another thing you can also look at is Wi-Fi extenders for big houses.
I've actually got three in my house.
So I've got a, my router, which blasts out in my main living room, and I've got one upstairs, a Wi-Fi extender, which grabs that internet from downstairs and it gives it an extra pulse to make that speed faster than the far corners of my house.
I've got another one in my office, which is external to my main house, so that the three of them work together on the same internet connection, but I get really fast speeds across the entire house.
I'm just looking at my motor at the moment and it's surrounded by pots and pans.
Is that probably not a good place to put it? No.
Another good thing to remember when you're deciding where your Wi-Fi router is going to sit is to try and keep it up high.
A lot of people put them down behind TVs, down low, and there's just going to be a lot of more interference there between a signal coming out of the router and a signal on your device that you are using.
So if you can find a way to get it up high on top of a bookshelf or mount it up on a wall, up in the corner there, above head height, and that's just kind of slightly improved that Wi-Fi speed as well.
So I've tried all these things, I'm still getting a bit of slowdown, what should I do next? Yeah, look, it's good to understand, I guess, what is going to take the most amount of bandwidth up in your house, so what activities are going to be trying to shove as much information as possible down that pipe we've talked about before.
The big one is video, any sort of video, whether you're watching Netflix or watching YouTube, or something like that, or if you're doing a Zoom with a meeting, anything like that, then that is going to ask a lot of your bandwidth, so that's something to consider.
You've also got gaming, which is another big one, so if you've got someone in the other room playing multiplayer games online, that's going to take up a lot of data.
Uploads are another big one, if you're not on the NBA, NBA in particular, you're probably using really old slow upload speeds, and that's trying to push a giant package, a huge file, back up the internet through that pipe, and that is also going to impact your bandwidth capacity inside your house.
So those are things you can think about when you need to have that internet speed working really well, for example, a very important client meeting you might be having on Zoom, make sure the kids next door in the next door room aren't watching Netflix or something like that.
You could potentially either get them a DVD, old school, or download something, so for Disney Plus, for example, allows you to download something to your hard drive and just play offline.
If they're playing games, if they're playing video games, just ask them to play a single player game offline while you're having that chat, and that'll just slow down the demand on the bandwidth in your house and give you a much better connection to why you are using it.

Which internet provider offers the fastest speed in Australia?

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) releases a broadband performance report 4 times a year.

The ACCC tests NBN connections during the busiest hours of the day (7–11pm). A score of 100% means a provider reaches its advertised speeds 100% of the time.

The top 4 providers that have performed the best in the latest report are:

Fastest

Exetel

Finder Award

104% average speed of plan maximum during busy hours

2nd fastest

Telstra

102.9% average speed of plan maximum during busy hours

3rd fastest

TPG

102.5% average speed of plan maximum during busy hours

4th fastest

Dodo

102.2% average speed of plan maximum during busy hours

Source: ACCC's Broadband performance data for March 2025.

What is the average speed of internet in Australia?

According to our speed test data, the average download speed in Australia ranges from 41.7Mbps to 51.2Mbps.

Here's a look at how the average speeds vary between different states and territories:

Are you happy with your internet speed?

45% of Australians are somewhat satisfied with their broadband speeds, according to our consumer sentiment tracker (November 2023). Tasmanians had the highest number of people very satisfied with their internet speed (32%). Somewhat surprisingly, 29% of people in regional locations were extremely satisfied with their internet speeds compared to only 25% in metro areas.

Learn more about Australia's internet speed statistics.

What's the right internet speed for me?

This will depend on the type of activities you need to carry out online. For a single person, we'd recommend 25Mbps at least.

If you have multiple people in your household that are online simulatanesouly on most days, you'll want to sign up to a plan with faster speeds. Since the pandemic, our internet habits have definitely changed. It also coincides with a growing dependence on technology such as Google Home or Alexa that requires a Wi-Fi connection.

This is why the NBN, and as a result providers, are pushing faster internet speeds at cheaper prices and increasing the cost to households for entry level and mid-tier broadband speeds.

To help you figure out the right internet speed for you, we've laid out a range of typical evening speeds available across each NBN speed tier as per Finder's database. The key takeaway here is that it is possible to get the maximum available speed across each tier so don't settle unless you notice a massive difference in price.

Speed tier	Typical evening speed	Number of users at one time	Activity
NBN 12 (Home Basic I)	At least 8Mpbs and up to 12Mbps	1 person	Sending emails and general browsing Wi-Fi calling
NBN 25 (Home Basic II)	At least 17Mbps and up to 25Mpbs	1–2 people	Sending emails and browsing Social media and music streaming SD video streaming
NBN 50 (Home Standard)	At least 35Mbps and up to 50Mbps	2–3 people	Sending emails and browsing Social media and music streaming HD video streaming (1080p) Video conferencing Gaming
NBN 100 (Home Fast)	At least 70Mbps and up to 100Mbps	4 or more people	Sending emails and browsing Social media and music streaming HD video streaming (4K) Video conferencing Gaming Large downloads
NBN 250 (Home Superfast)	At least 183Mbps up to 250Mbps	5 - 10 People	Sending emails and browsing Social media and music streaming HD video streaming (4K and 8K) Video conferencing Faster gaming Large downloads and faster uploads
NBN 1000 (Home Ultrafast)	At least 830Mbps up to 844Mbps	5 or more people	Honestly? Whatever you want. Ultrafast internet is great for lots of everything.

Our expert says

"In a smaller household, 35Mbps will be fine. If you're working from home, aim towards 70Mbps as a minimum. In a big family or if you're always working with big files, think superfast and look for 120Mbps+ if you can get it."

Angus Kidman

Editor-at-large

Frequently asked questions

Your internet speed varies across the day depending on how many devices you might be using, what activities you're performing on those devices and how many other people are using your network.
You can get a more accurate internet speed test by:
- Conducting several tests across the day and calculating an average
- Test the connection from multiple devices (to rule out speed being a device issue)
- Conduct the test via an ethernet cable instead of over Wi-Fi
Ping is the term for how long it takes your computer to get a response from the network. The faster the response, the lower the ping number you'll get.
One way to think about it is like waiting for someone to answer the phone. Low ping is equivalent to someone picking up the phone on the first ring.
- Keep in mind: While download and upload speeds will be fairly consistent, ping will fluctuate often. Most people don't need to worry about ping too much.
When does ping matter?
Ping won't matter in most instances except for:
- Online gaming
- Voice and video calls
Jitter is a measurement of how your ping changes over time. If you get a high jitter, it means your connection is unstable. This might mean you have bad wiring or might be using a mobile network.
Like ping, jitter is measured in ms.
Example: If your speed test returns a jitter of 3ms and a ping of 10ms it means your ping is jumping between 7ms and 13ms.
If your internet connection is slow or not performing as well as you want, you can take several actions.
1. Reposition your modem. Modem/router signals are strongest the closer you are without any interference. Being further across the room from your modem or having walls between you can result in a weaker signal and slow speeds. Putting your modem up high rather than on the floor should help too. If moving closer to your modem or moving it closer to you doesn't help then consider investing in a better router, a Wi-Fi extender or wire in with an ethernet cable.
2. Reduce network congestion. Having too many people online at one time can cause a "traffic jam". This is more prominent at lower speed tiers. If you have an important work meeting asking another household member to pause their Netflix for an hour could help. If your household isn't the problem it might be a provider problem. Compare and switch to an internet service with better typical evening speeds. You can also hop off your broadband connection and swap over to your mobile's personal hotspot if your plan allows it.
3. Replace or upgrade your equipment. When nothing else works, it might be your equipment itself. Compare to find a new router – just make sure it's supported by your provider.
You can also try running a virus scan, updating your network drivers or closing background applications.

Thank you for your feedback!

To make sure you get accurate and helpful information, this guide has been edited by Tim Bennett as part of our fact-checking process.

Written by

Mariam Gabaji

Senior Utilities Editor & Tech Expert

Mariam Gabaji is a journalist with 13 years of experience, specialising in consumer topics like mobile services and energy costs. Her work appears in the ABC, Yahoo Finance, 9News, The Guardian, SBS, 7News, A Current Affair and Money Magazine. Mariam holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and was a finalist for the 2024 IT Journalism Award for Best Telecommunications Journalist. See full bio

Mariam's expertise

Mariam has written 338 Finder guides across topics including:

Energy
Mobile
Broadband
Consumer tech

Kogan internet review Telstra business NBN

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2 Responses

DonnaApril 2, 2025

I have Optus 4g. I need my laptop, TV, and vacuum. It doesn’t take all three, only my laptop and TV. I can’t load Vacumme up. Appreciate any advice

Finder

MariamApril 4, 2025Finder

Hi Donna, I would suggest reaching out to Optus’s customer support and ask them to help. Give them the model of your vacuum. If that doesn’t pan out please reach out to me and I’ll see what I can do.

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