What Counts as a "Verified" Test?

Verification requirements checklist

Requirement	Status	Why it matters
Logged in to a Speedtest.now account	Required	Anonymous results cannot be attributed to a leaderboard entry
Account email address is verified	Required	Prevents throwaway accounts from flooding the competition
Test run in a standard browser (not scripted)	Required	Automated tools can generate artificially high results
Connection not routed through a VPN or proxy	Required	VPN tunnel or data centre exit node does not reflect consumer speeds
Result does not trigger anomaly detection	Required	Results far outside the expected range for the ISP/location are flagged
Test completed fully (not cancelled mid-test)	Required	Partial results are not representative of connection performance

What the quality pipeline checks

Session authenticity

Every test session has a fingerprint derived from browser environment signals (not tracking data — standard browser capability detection). Sessions that match known automation tool signatures, headless browsers, or scripted test runners are identified and excluded. This is not about surveillance — it's about confirming that a real person ran the test through a standard browser.

IP classification

Your IP address at the time of the test is checked against known VPN exit node databases, commercial proxy ranges, and data centre IP blocks. Consumer ISP addresses (residential and business broadband) pass this check. If you're using a corporate network that shares an IP with a data centre range, your result may be excluded even without a VPN — this is a known limitation.

Anomaly detection

Results are compared to expected ranges for your detected ISP and geographic region. A result that is 5× the median for your ISP will be flagged as a potential anomaly. This catches measurement errors, browser-level bugs, and attempts to submit fraudulent results. Legitimate outliers — users who genuinely have faster-than-average connections — can still pass if the result is plausible given their location's infrastructure.

Account standing

Accounts flagged for suspicious activity (e.g. multiple accounts from the same IP submitting results simultaneously) are subject to additional scrutiny. Normal single-account use is never affected by this check.

What "verified" does not mean

A "verified test" does not mean:

• The speed result has been confirmed by a third party
• Your ISP has validated the speed
• The result is guaranteed to be accurate to your plan speed

It means the test was submitted under conditions consistent with a legitimate consumer speed measurement and passed all automated quality checks. It's a quality floor, not an endorsement.

What happens to unverified results

Unverified results are still stored in your personal test history and contribute to aggregate ISP/country statistics. They simply do not count as competition entries and do not appear on the leaderboard. They are not deleted.