Cloudflare ranks fastest in 74% of top networks, up from 60%

Cloudflare is now the fastest provider in 74% of the 1,000 largest networks globally, a 14 percentage point increase from 60% in April 2026. This improvement reflects becoming the fastest provider in an additional 150 networks and 38 countries.

New Measurement Methodology

To achieve greater scale and accuracy, Cloudflare introduced performance benchmarking using Cloudflare Challenge Pages. Previously, measurements relied on Cloudflare-branded error pages, which provided high-quality data but from a narrower set of use cases. Challenge Pages, delivered by Cloudflare Turnstile, allow for background measurements during everyday interactions, significantly increasing the volume of data and the diversity of networks and geographies observed.

How Measurements Work

The analysis ranks the 1,000 largest networks by estimated user population using data from APNIC. Performance is evaluated using connection time, specifically the time required for a TCP handshake. To reduce the influence of outliers, Cloudflare calculates the trimean of connection times, combining the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles into a weighted average.

Measurements are collected by fetching lightweight files from several providers, including Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront, Google, Fastly, and Akamai. The new Challenge Page method runs quietly in the browser without adding noticeable latency or requiring user interaction. Currently, these measurements are limited to a small fraction of eligible free Challenge Pages to ensure end-user performance remains unaffected.

Impact on Rankings

The increased measurement volume helps distinguish genuine performance leads from statistical noise, particularly in networks where top providers are separated by only a millisecond or two. This broader dataset provides a more stable and representative view of which provider is actually fastest in each network, supporting Cloudflare's claim of improved performance across a wider range of real-world conditions.