2026 Birthday week: network performance update

Summary

Cloudflare is now the fastest provider in 74% of the top 1,000 global networks, up from 60% in April 2026, representing an additional 150 networks and 38 countries. Performance is measured using connection time (TCP handshake) and the trimean of connection times, which combines the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles to reduce outlier influence. To expand data collection, Cloudflare introduced a new methodology using Challenge Pages, which run non-interactive background measurements fetching lightweight files from providers including Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront, Google, Fastly, and Akamai. Challenge Pages are delivered by Turnstile and preserve privacy while providing broader reach than error-page measurements alone. This increased measurement volume narrows confidence intervals around trimean values, making rankings more stable in networks where top providers are separated by only a millisecond or two.

Takeaways

1. 1

   Cloudflare is now the fastest provider in 74% of the top 1,000 global networks, up from 60% in April 2026, adding 150 networks and 38 countries.

2. 2

   Performance is measured using connection time (TCP handshake) and the trimean (weighted average of 25th, 50th, 75th percentiles) to reduce outlier influence.

3. 3

   Challenge Pages provide broader reach than error pages alone, allowing measurements from more networks and users, which narrows confidence intervals and stabilizes rankings in closely contested networks.

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