How a Reading Is Taken

Every 5 seconds, your browser makes three real network calls directly to the nearest Cloudflare edge location — no plugin, Java applet, or Flash test harness involved, just the native Fetch API:

• Ping: a lightweight request to /api/ping, timed round-trip.
• Download: a timed transfer from /api/download.
• Upload: a timed transfer to /api/upload.

Because this repeats continuously rather than running once for 10-15 seconds, the resulting graph shows real variance over time — congestion, WiFi interference, and ISP throttling that a single-shot test would miss entirely.

Scoring

Each reading feeds two separate 0-100 scores: the consumer-facing RTS Experience Score and the throughput-blind RTS Stability Index used for ISP comparisons. Scores computed before July 3, 2026 used methodology v1; the current formulas are v2. Full penalty breakdowns for both are on the RTS Score page.

Measurement Scope

All metrics are gathered via browser-based, sustained small-transfer measurements designed to simulate real-world web browsing, video conferencing, and gaming workloads — not a single large-file saturation test. This is a deliberate tradeoff: it means our raw Mbps numbers can read lower than a dedicated max-throughput tool like Ookla on a very high-bandwidth connection, in exchange for readings that better reflect everyday usage and can run continuously without consuming a meaningful amount of your data plan. See how speed tests actually work for the full comparison.