Website latency test
Measure how long it takes to get an answer from popular websites, or add your own site and see what a visitor on your connection waits for before anything appears.
Free. Runs in your browser with real HTTPS requests. Nothing to install.
Latency is the wait before the page starts
Before a browser can show anything it has to reach the server, set up a secure connection and receive the first byte of the answer. That wait is latency, and it comes before any bandwidth matters. A fast connection to a slow-to-reach server still feels slow.
This test times that wait with real HTTPS requests from your browser, several passes for every destination, and compares each with the world average so you can see whether a slow result is about you or about the site.
Testing your own website
Open the destination picker, choose Add your own and enter your address. It becomes a custom destination, which is measured from your browser only. It is marked as custom, it is not saved to the shared data, there is no world average for it and it never appears in a shared report. That keeps comparisons honest.
Remember that you see the view from where you are. To judge how your site feels to visitors elsewhere, ask people in other regions to run the same test, or compare against the other sites in the list, which show what normal looks like for your connection.
What affects the number
- Distance to the server: physics sets a floor. Light in fiber covers roughly 200 km per millisecond, and routes are never straight.
- Connection setup: every new secure connection needs several round trips. Modern protocols reduce this.
- Server work: a slow application or database adds to the wait on top of the network.
- A CDN or edge cache in front of the site puts the first response closer to the visitor.
Questions
Is this the same as a page speed test?
No. A page speed test measures loading the whole page. This test measures the first part, the time to reach the server and get an answer, which is where distance and routing show.
What is TTFB?
Time to first byte, the time until the first part of the answer arrives. It is closely related to what this test measures and is explained in our guide on TTFB.
Will my website be stored or compared?
No. A site you add is a custom destination: it stays in your browser, is not saved to our data and is never part of a shared report.