What a video call needs from your connection
Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet all prefer to send audio and video over UDP, because a video frame that arrives late is no use and there is no point waiting for it to be resent. When packets go missing the app lowers the video quality, freezes the picture, or cuts out audio until the stream recovers. That makes packet loss and jitter the two numbers that decide whether a call goes smoothly, far more than download speed, which most calls barely use.
This connection test sends a steady UDP stream to the nearest Cloudflare edge and measures what a call would experience: how many packets are lost, how much the delay varies, and how long the round trip takes. The verdict under the result rates your connection for video calls and for voice separately, since voice is less forgiving of delay and video is less forgiving of loss.
Targets for smooth video calls
Bandwidth still matters at the bottom end: a group call in HD uses around 2 to 4 Mbps in each direction, and screen sharing adds more. Upload is the usual limit, because home lines often have far less upload than download. If your upload is fine and calls still freeze, the cause is almost always loss or jitter, which is what this test shows.
| Measure | Smooth | Some freezing | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Packet loss | Under 1% | 1 to 2% | Over 5% |
| Jitter | Under 15 ms | 15 to 30 ms | Over 60 ms |
| Ping | Under 100 ms | 100 to 150 ms | Over 300 ms |
If the test says calls will struggle
- Move to a cable or closer to the router. Wifi is the most common cause of frozen video at home.
- Stop uploads. Cloud backups and photo syncing fill the upload that your camera stream needs.
- Turn off video when it matters. Audio uses a fraction of the bandwidth and recovers from loss much better.
- Close other call and streaming apps. Two apps competing for the same camera stream or upload make both worse.
- If UDP is blocked, the apps fall back to TCP, which works but adds delay and stutters under loss. The test will tell you; see UDP blocked.
Testing before an important call
Run the test five minutes before, from the same device and room you will call from, with everything else in the house running as it normally does. A 30-second run is enough to catch most problems; if the call is important and your connection has been flaky, use 60 seconds. If the result is poor for video but fine for voice, you already have your fallback plan: join with the camera off.