Cloudflare says it is the fastest in 74% of big networks, partly by changing how it counts

Cloudflare claims first place on connection speed in 74% of the world's 1,000 biggest networks, compared with 60% in April 2026. In the same post, the company says part of the jump comes from measuring more traffic in a different way.

What is being measured

The ranking is based on connection time, specifically how long the TCP handshake takes. Cloudflare summarizes it with the trimean, a weighted average of the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles that dampens the effect of outliers while still reflecting typical users.

Networks are ranked by how many users they serve.

A new source of data

Previously, Cloudflare took its measurements from Cloudflare-branded error pages. Now it also uses Challenge Pages, the verification screens that check a visitor's browser before letting it into a site.

The advantage is volume and variety. The method captures real-world performance across many sites and networks without asking users to do anything.

The caveats the company states

Cloudflare itself lists several limits. The gap between leading providers is often only 1 to 2 milliseconds. The company acknowledges that the larger volume of measurements from Challenge Pages contributes to the improved ranking. And the initial Challenge Pages sampling is limited to pages on its free tier.

So the post can be read two ways. One is that the network got faster. The other is that the scoreboard changed. Cloudflare says it is both a genuine performance advance and a result of better measurement, and it does not say how much of the 14-point rise belongs to each.

Why it matters

Network speed claims are marketing, but they are also how customers choose where to place their sites. A 1 to 2 millisecond difference is smaller than a human can perceive, which makes the choice of method matter more than the numbers.

The post does not show a before-and-after comparison using the old method alone. That would be the simplest way to separate real speed from a changed ruler.