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How Fast is SpaceX's Satellite Internet? Beta Tests Show it Hitting Up to 60 Mbps

Users on Reddit have been crawling Ookla’s Speedtest website and spotted at least 13 tests registered to Starlink, which show it providing speeds from 11 Mbps to 60 Mbps.

Michael Kan
 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

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As SpaceX prepares to launch Starlink, a big question facing the upcoming satellite internet service is how fast it’ll operate in the real world. 

Well, there’s actually some speed test data that shows Starlink can deliver download speeds from 11 Mbps to 60 Mbps. Apparently, some lucky beta users have been trying out Starlink on Ookla’s Speedtest website. (Note: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag.com's parent company.)

As Ars Technica points out, users on Reddit have been crawling Ookla’s website and spotted about a dozen speed tests registered to Starlink. The tests, which were mostly conducted earlier this month, show the satellite internet network was able to deliver download speeds of 42.8 Mbps when averaged together. 

The upload speeds, on the other hand, ranged from 4.5 Mbps to 17.7 Mbps. Nearly all the tests were done in Los Angeles, California, save for three, which occurred in Seattle, Washington. As for latency, the tests ranged from 20 milliseconds all the way up to 94 ms. 

The speed tests Reddit users spotted. The speed tests Reddit users spotted. (Credit: Ookla)

The speed tests are well below SpaceX’s target goal of supplying 1Gbps internet speeds. Still, many users in the Starlink forum on Reddit are pointing out even a 15 Mbps download speed would be a significant improvement over the broadband they currently use. In the US, rural areas in particular have slow internet speeds, reaching 7 Mbps or far lower.  

It's also important to note Starlink's satellite network remains under construction, so the speeds and latency will likely improve over time.

As for whether the speed tests are real, Ookla told PCMag: "These tests do appear to be legitimate. In general, the information about a connection that is visible to a user during a test is rigorously vetted by our QA (quality assurance) team." 

Related

Currently, SpaceX has launched about 600 satellites in orbit to power Starlink. But the goal is to eventually launch thousands more to provide global broadband coverage. The company plans on kicking off a public beta test for interested users in the coming weeks before embarking on an official launch later this year.  

To learn more about the beta tests, you can go to Starlink.com to sign up for the email newsletter. However, the public beta is likely going to only occur in the Washington state area.

Starlink is slated to first launch in the northern US and lower Canada before a global roll out in 2021.

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About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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