How to Test Your Linux Internet Speed Using Speedtest CLI

We always need to check the speed of the Internet connection at home and office. What do we do about this? Go to websites like Speedtest.net and begin the test. It loads JavaScript in the web browser and then selects the best server based upon ping and outputs the result. It also uses a Flash player to produce graphical results.

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What about a headless server, where isn’t any web-based browser and the main point is, most of the servers are headless. Another bottleneck of such web browser-based speed testing is that you can’t schedule the speed testing at regular intervals.

Here comes an application “Speedtest-cli” that removes such bottlenecks and lets you test the speed of Internet connection from the command line.

What is Speedtest-cli

The application is basically a script developed in the Python programming language. It measures Internet Bandwidth speed bidirectionally. It uses speedtest.net infrastructure to measure the speed. Speedtest-cli is able to list servers based upon physical distance, test against the specific servers, and gives you a URL to share the result of your internet speed test.

To install the latest speedtest-cli tool in Linux systems, you must have Python 2.4-3.4 or a higher version installed on the system.

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Install speedtest-cli in Linux

There are three ways to install the speedtest-cli tool. The first method involves the use of python-pip package while the second method is to download the Python script, make it executable and run it and the third method is to use the package manager. Here I will cover all ways…

Let’s get started…

Install speedtest-cli Using Python PIP

First, you need to install the python-pip package, then afterward you can install the speedtest-cli tool using the pip command as shown below.

Install PIP in Debian/Ubuntu/Mint

$ sudo apt install python-pip                [Python 2]
$ sudo apt install python3-venv python3-pip  [Python 3]

Install PIP in CentOS/RHEL

$ sudo yum install epel-release 
$ sudo install python-pip

Install PIP in Fedora

$ sudo yum upgrade python-setuptools
$ sudo yum install python-pip python-wheel  [Python 2]
$ sudo dnf install python3 python3-wheel    [Python 3]

Install PIP in openSUSE

$ sudo zypper install python-pip python-setuptools python-wheel    [Python 2]
$ sudo zypper install python3-pip python3-setuptools python3-wheel [Python 3]

Install PIP in Arch Linux

$ sudo pacman -S python2-pip     [Python 2]
$ sudo pacman -S python-pip      [Python 3]

Once pip has been installed, you can install the speedtest-cli tool.

$ sudo pip install speedtest-cli
OR
$ sudo pip3 install speedtest-cli

To upgrade speedtest-cli, at a later stage, use.

$ sudo pip install speedtest-cli --upgrade

Install speedtest-cli Using Python Script

First, download the python script from Github using the wget command or curl command and make the script file executable.

$ wget -O speedtest-cli https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/master/speedtest.py
$ chmod +x speedtest-cli

OR

$ curl -Lo speedtest-cli https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/master/speedtest.py
$ chmod +x speedtest-cli 

Next, move the executable to /usr/bin folder, so that you don’t need to type the full path every time.

$ sudo mv speedtest-cli /usr/bin/

Install speedtest-cli Using Package Manager

You can also install speedtest-cli using your default package manager as shown.

------ On Ubuntu/Debian/Mint ------ 
$ curl -s https://install.speedtest.net/app/cli/install.deb.sh | sudo bash
$ sudo apt-get install speedtest

------ On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora ------
$ curl -s https://install.speedtest.net/app/cli/install.rpm.sh | sudo bash
$ sudo yum install speedtest

Testing Linux Internet Connection Speed with speedtest-cli

1. To test the Download and Upload speed of your internet connection, run the speedtest-cli command without any argument as shown below.

$ speedtest-cli

2. To check the speed result in bytes in place of bits.

$ speedtest-cli --bytes

3. Share your bandwidth speed with your friends or family. You are provided with a link that can be used to download an image.

$ speedtest-cli --share

The following picture is a sample speed test result generated using the above command.

4. Don’t need any additional information other than Ping, Download, and Upload?

$ speedtest-cli --simple

5. List the speedtest.net server-based upon physical distance. The distance in km is mentioned.

$ speedtest-cli --list

6. The last stage generated a huge list of servers sorted on the basis of distance. How to get desired output? Say I only want to see the speedtest.net server located in Mumbai (India).

$ speedtest-cli --list | grep -i Mumbai

7. Test connection speed against a specific server. Use Server Id generated in example 5 and example 6 in above.

$ speedtest-cli --server 23647      ## Here server ID 23647 is used in the example.

8. To check the version number and help of speedtest-cli a tool.

$ speedtest-cli --version
$ speedtest-cli --help

Note: Latency reported by the tool is not its goal and one should not rely on it. The relative latency values output is responsible for the server selected to be tested against. CPU and Memory capacity will influence the result to a certain extent.

Conclusion

The tool is a must for system administrators and developers. A simple script that runs without any issue. I must say that the application is wonderful, lightweight, and do what it promises. I disliked Speedtest.net for the reason it was using flash, but speedtest-cli gave me a reason to love them.

speedtest_cli is a third-party application and should not be used to automatically record the bandwidth speed. Speedtest.net is used by millions of users and it is a good idea to Set Your Own Speedtest Mini Server.

That’s all for now, till then stay tuned and connected to Tecmint. Don’t forget to give your valuable feedback in the comments below. Like and share us and help us get spread.