WiFi Speed Test

Free, no ads, no signup. Test how fast your wireless connection really is in each room, get a single 0-100 AIM Score, and learn how to fix slow WiFi.

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A WiFi speed test measures the download speed, upload speed, ping, and jitter your device gets over the air from your router — not the speed printed on your internet bill. Because WiFi is a shared radio signal, what you actually get in the bedroom or on the couch can be a fraction of your plan's rated speed. Bolt Bunny runs entirely in your browser, uses 8 parallel connections to saturate your link, and rolls the four measurements into one easy AIM Score so you instantly know whether your WiFi is Excellent, Good, or Fair in the spot you're standing.

Why WiFi is almost always slower than a wired connection

It is completely normal for a WiFi test to come back lower than a wired ethernet test on the same internet plan. WiFi trades raw speed for convenience, and several things chip away at throughput before the data ever reaches your device:

It's a shared, half-duplex medium. Every device on the network takes turns using the same airtime. The more phones, TVs, and laptops that are active, the less each one gets.
Distance and obstacles. Signal weakens with every metre and every wall. Concrete, brick, tile, metal, and mirrors block WiFi heavily; a couple of interior walls can cut speed dramatically.
Interference. Neighbouring networks, microwaves, cordless phones, baby monitors, and Bluetooth devices all crowd the airwaves, especially on the older 2.4GHz band.
Protocol overhead. WiFi spends part of its capacity on error correction, acknowledgements, and management traffic, so usable throughput is always below the theoretical link rate.
Your device and adapter. An older phone or laptop with a WiFi 4/5 adapter can't reach the speeds a WiFi 6 device would, even on the same router.

As a rough guide, seeing WiFi deliver roughly 30-70% of your plan's rated speed a few rooms from the router is typical. If you're paying for 300 Mbps and get 150 Mbps on WiFi in the living room but the full 300 Mbps over ethernet, your line is fine — your wireless setup is the limiting factor.

How to test your WiFi speed properly

One test in one spot doesn't tell you much. To actually understand your wireless network, test in a few places and compare the AIM Scores. It takes about 20 seconds per test.

Test at the router first. Stand a few feet away with a clear line of sight and run the test. This is your best-case WiFi speed and the ceiling for everywhere else.
Test where you actually use devices. Move to the couch, the bedroom, the home office, the backyard — wherever WiFi feels slow — and test again. The drop in download speed and AIM Score tells you how much you're losing to distance and walls.
Compare 2.4GHz vs 5GHz. If your router broadcasts two network names (often one ending in "-5G"), connect to each and test both in the same spot.
Run a wired baseline. Plug a laptop into the router with an ethernet cable and test. This reveals the maximum speed your ISP delivers, so you can separate a WiFi problem from an ISP problem.

Reading your AIM Score

The AIM (Aggregated Internet Measurement) Score blends download (40%), upload (20%), ping (25%), and jitter (15%) into one number. When you compare rooms, watch how the score changes:

85-100 Excellent · 70-84 Good · 50-69 Fair · Below 50 needs attention. A score that stays high at the router but collapses in the far bedroom is a classic coverage problem — a job for repositioning, a mesh node, or an extender.

2.4GHz vs 5GHz vs 6GHz: which band to use

Modern routers broadcast on two or three frequency bands. Each is a trade-off between speed and range. There is no single "best" band — the right one depends on how far you are from the router.

Band	Speed	Range & wall penetration	Best for
2.4 GHz	Slower	Longest range, passes through walls best	Far rooms, smart-home devices, range over speed
5 GHz	Much faster	Shorter range, weaker through walls	Streaming, gaming, and calls near the router
6 GHz (WiFi 6E/7)	Fastest, least congested	Shortest range, most affected by walls	High-bandwidth use in the same room as the router

The practical rule: use 5GHz (or 6GHz) when you're close for maximum speed, and fall back to 2.4GHz when you're far away or behind several walls and need the signal to reach at all. Many routers hide both bands behind one network name and use "band steering" to switch you automatically; if yours does, testing each band separately means temporarily creating split network names in your router settings.

Does a mesh system or extender help?

If large parts of your home get a weak signal, better coverage will do more for you than a faster internet plan. Two common fixes:

Mesh WiFi

A mesh system uses several access points ("nodes") placed around the home so every room gets a strong signal. Mesh mainly improves coverage, which in turn raises the speed you get in far rooms — a room that was getting a Fair AIM Score can jump to Good once a node is nearby. For the best results, connect nodes to your router with an ethernet cable ("wired backhaul") so the wireless hop between nodes doesn't become the bottleneck.

Range extenders

A single extender is a cheaper way to patch one dead spot, but basic extenders often halve throughput because they repeat traffic on the same band. Test with Bolt Bunny before and after placing one to confirm it's actually helping rather than just showing more signal bars.

Troubleshooting slow WiFi

If your WiFi test comes back lower than expected, work through these in order and re-test after each change to see the AIM Score move:

Reposition the router. Central, elevated, and out in the open beats a corner behind the TV or inside a cabinet. Keep it away from metal, mirrors, and the microwave.
Restart it. A reboot clears memory leaks and re-picks the least congested channel.
Switch to 5GHz up close. The single biggest quick win for nearby devices.
Change the WiFi channel. On 2.4GHz, stick to channels 1, 6, or 11 to avoid overlap with neighbours.
Update the firmware. Router makers ship performance and stability fixes regularly.
Cut the crowd. Pause big background downloads, cloud backups, and idle devices hogging airtime.
Upgrade the hardware. A WiFi 6 router or a mesh system with wired backhaul is the real fix for a large or multi-floor home.
Rule out the ISP. If even a wired ethernet test is far below your plan's speed, the problem is upstream — contact your provider.

Test My WiFi Now → What counts as a good speed?

Frequently asked questions

Why is my WiFi slower than my internet plan?

WiFi is a shared, half-duplex radio medium, so it almost always delivers less than the wired speed your ISP provides. Distance from the router, walls and floors, interference from neighbours and appliances, older WiFi standards, and every device sharing the same airtime all reduce real-world throughput. It is normal to see WiFi deliver 30-70% of your plan's rated speed, especially a few rooms away from the router.

How do I test my WiFi speed properly?

Run one test standing near the router for your best-case speed, then run it again where you actually use your devices to see how much you lose to distance and walls. If your router has separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks, test both. For a full picture, also run a wired ethernet test so you know the maximum speed your ISP delivers.

Should I use 2.4GHz or 5GHz WiFi?

Use 5GHz when you are close to the router and want maximum speed, and 2.4GHz when you are far away or behind several walls and need range over speed. 5GHz is much faster and less congested but does not travel as far or pass through walls as well. 2.4GHz reaches farther but is slower and more crowded. Many modern routers use band steering to pick automatically.

Does a mesh WiFi system make my speed faster?

Mesh systems mainly fix coverage, not raw speed. They spread several access points around your home so far-away rooms get a strong signal instead of a weak one, which raises the speed you get in those rooms. For the best results, connect mesh nodes to your router with an ethernet cable (wired backhaul) so the wireless link between nodes does not become a bottleneck.

Why is my WiFi slow only in certain rooms?

Signal weakens with every wall, floor, and metre of distance, and materials like concrete, brick, tile, and metal block it heavily. Rooms far from the router, in the basement, or behind the kitchen often get much weaker signal and slower speeds. Test in the slow room, then try moving the router to a more central, elevated, open spot or adding a mesh node or extender.

Does testing on WiFi give accurate results?

A WiFi test accurately shows what your device actually gets over wireless, which is exactly what matters for streaming and calls in that spot. It does not show your ISP's maximum line speed, because WiFi adds overhead and loss. To separate the two, run Bolt Bunny once over WiFi and once over a wired ethernet connection and compare the two AIM Scores.

How can I fix slow WiFi?

Move your router to a central, elevated, open location away from metal and appliances, restart it, and update its firmware. Switch to the 5GHz band up close, change to a less crowded channel, and reduce the number of devices competing for airtime. If large areas stay slow, upgrade to a WiFi 6 router or add a mesh system with wired backhaul. If even a wired test is far below your plan, contact your ISP.

Is the Bolt Bunny WiFi speed test free?

Yes. Bolt Bunny's WiFi speed test is 100% free with unlimited tests, no ads, no tracking, and no signup. It measures download, upload, ping, and jitter and combines them into a single 0-100 AIM Score. Optional Pro at $5/month adds saved test history, trend charts, scheduled tests, and API access so you can track WiFi performance over time and across rooms.