This tutorial shows how you can easily run a speedtest from the command line on any Linux system. This is most commonly used for VPS/Servers where there is no GUI with a web browser to test visit speedtest.net or similar site.

Thanks to this speedtest-cli tool we can do these tests.

If you are planning to run tests often you can install it to reuse with the below command.

wget -O /usr/local/bin/speedtest-cli https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/master/speedtest.py; chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/speedtest-cli;

Now we can run the below to run a test and output a shareable link.

speedtest-cli --share

For a simple, once off speed test the below command can be used to download the binary locally and run a test.

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

Here is an example of the output.

Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from Level 3 Communications (8.11.15.90)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by ServerCentral (Chicago, IL) [5.98 km]: 1.334 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 5800.54 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed................................................................................................
Upload: 2131.39 Mbit/s
Share results: http://www.speedtest.net/result/0.png

$ speedtest-cli -h
usage: speedtest-cli [-h] [--no-download] [--no-upload] [--single] [--bytes]
                     [--share] [--simple] [--csv]
                     [--csv-delimiter CSV_DELIMITER] [--csv-header] [--json]
                     [--list] [--server SERVER] [--exclude EXCLUDE]
                     [--mini MINI] [--source SOURCE] [--timeout TIMEOUT]
                     [--secure] [--no-pre-allocate] [--version]

Command line interface for testing internet bandwidth using speedtest.net.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --no-download         Do not perform download test
  --no-upload           Do not perform upload test
  --single              Only use a single connection instead of multiple. This
                        simulates a typical file transfer.
  --bytes               Display values in bytes instead of bits. Does not
                        affect the image generated by --share, nor output from
                        --json or --csv
  --share               Generate and provide a URL to the speedtest.net share
                        results image, not displayed with --csv
  --simple              Suppress verbose output, only show basic information
  --csv                 Suppress verbose output, only show basic information
                        in CSV format. Speeds listed in bit/s and not affected
                        by --bytes
  --csv-delimiter CSV_DELIMITER
                        Single character delimiter to use in CSV output.
                        Default ","
  --csv-header          Print CSV headers
  --json                Suppress verbose output, only show basic information
                        in JSON format. Speeds listed in bit/s and not
                        affected by --bytes
  --list                Display a list of speedtest.net servers sorted by
                        distance
  --server SERVER       Specify a server ID to test against. Can be supplied
                        multiple times
  --exclude EXCLUDE     Exclude a server from selection. Can be supplied
                        multiple times
  --mini MINI           URL of the Speedtest Mini server
  --source SOURCE       Source IP address to bind to
  --timeout TIMEOUT     HTTP timeout in seconds. Default 10
  --secure              Use HTTPS instead of HTTP when communicating with
                        speedtest.net operated servers
  --no-pre-allocate     Do not pre allocate upload data. Pre allocation is
                        enabled by default to improve upload performance. To
                        support systems with insufficient memory, use this
                        option to avoid a MemoryError
  --version             Show the version number and exit

We hope you found this post helpful in your Linux Adventures. For more detailed information about this tool please see the official Github here.