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Pro tip: your Mac has a built-in speed test (networkQuality)

10 Oct 2026

Since macOS Monterey, every Mac ships with networkQuality, a native command-line speed test. No browser tab, no Python script, no third-party CLI

Run it from any terminal:

networkQuality

==== SUMMARY ====
Uplink capacity: 75.910 Mbps
Downlink capacity: 483.249 Mbps
Responsiveness: Medium (200.578 milliseconds | 299 RPM)
Idle Latency: 78.426 milliseconds | 765 RPM

Available since macOS 12 Monterey, lives in /usr/bin

Why it beats the usual speed test

  • Native: nothing to install, update or pipe from the internet
  • Concise: upload capacity, download capacity and responsiveness
  • Responsiveness is measured in RPM (round-trips per minute) while your connection is under load, and rated Low, Medium or High. That’s what you actually feel on video calls, SSH sessions and games. High throughput with low RPM means bufferbloat

Handy flags

Flag What it does
-s Test upload and download one after the other instead of in parallel
-v Verbose output
-I en0 Test a specific network interface (e.g. Wi-Fi vs Ethernet)
-c Machine-readable (JSON) output, handy for scripts

Run man networkQuality for the full list

Make it yours with an alias:

alias fast="networkQuality"

Drop that in your ~/.zshrc and fast is all you’ll ever type again

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