“Is the internet down?”.
We’ve all asked this question once or twice.

You’ve got an important online presentation to deliver, or an all-hands to join, or all of your sudden your internet feels slow and throttled.

The chances are, in that moment, you hopped on Google in a panic and searched ‘speed test’ (almost definitely ending up on the Ookla Speed Test page).

But, did you know you can run a speed test without even using a browser? Here’s how…

TLDR: You can run an Ookla Speed Test in the terminal with speedtest, or use networkQuality on macOs. Alternatively, watch the video below for a 30 second guide.

Approach 1: Using Ookla’s SpeedTest Package

If you want to run a test and save the results for later, start off installing the Ookla Speed Test CLI package.

Installing the Ookla Speed Test CLI

As I’m on macOS I’ll use Homebrew, but if you visit the link above you can see alternative installation guides.

brew tap teamookla/speedtest
brew install speedtest

Once it’s installed, we’re going to (read and) accept the terms and conditions and privacy policy, before simply running the following in the terminal to start the test:

speedtest

Saving Your Result

Once the test is complete, you can view the summary of the test in the terminal, or follow the URL to save your results for later.

Approach 2: Using the Built-In Speed Tester on macOS

If you’re using macOS (with Monterey, aka iOS 12 or later) then there’s actually an in-built speed tester you might not know about.

To use it, simply run the following in your terminal:

networkQuality

If you combine it with the -v flag (for verbose), you’ll get more in-depth results, as well as a responsiveness attribute, that is intended to give you a realistic idea of how your network is performing while under strain (such as when watching a video).

Watch It

If you’d prefer to see how to run a network speed test in your terminal in video format, watch below and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more tips and tricks.