• Thanks to Chrome’s web development tools, you can easily create deployable network throttling profiles to actively manage your downloads.
  • You can set the download speed using a custom throttle profile on Chrome.
  • This throttling simulation only affects your current browsing session in Chrome DevTools and doesn’t change your internet connection speed.

Set Download Speed Using a Custom Throttle Profile

Chrome’s web development tools, DevTools, are insanely powerful configuration options that help developers test websites under various simulated situations, including differing network conditions. Below, we show you how DevTools allows you to set the download speed using a custom throttle.

Step 1: Launch the Chrome browser.

Step 2: To open Chrome DevTools, press Ctrl + Shift + I on Windows and Linux or Command + Option + I on Mac.

Step 3: Click the Network tab, expand No throttling, and click Add .

Add throttling option - 1

Step 4: Click the Add custom profile option.

Add custom profile option - 2

Step 5: Fill out your Profile Name , Download , Upload , Latency , Packet Loss , Packet Queue Lenght , and Packet Reordering options as you please, then click Add .

Throttle profile values - 3

Step 6: Now, select your newly added option on the No throttling option in Step 3.

When you reload the webpage, Chrome will simulate the network conditions defined in your custom profile, including the download speed you specified.

Note: You may set values for Upload speed and Latency (ms) optionally. Also, download speeds are measured in kilobits per second (kbps), not megabits per second (mbps). Since there are 8 bits in a byte, to convert Mbps to kbps, multiply by 8.

Activate Your Throttle Profile Before Downloading

To ensure that your settings don’t affect the downloading item, you should activate the throttle profile before starting a download. Follow the steps below.

Step 1: Launch the Chrome browser.

Step 2: To open Chrome DevTools, press Ctrl + Shift + I on Windows and Linux or Command + Option + I on Mac.

Step 3: Click the Network tab, expand the No throttling, and click your desired throttling profile.

Select throttling profile - 4

Step 4: Lastly, go and start your download .

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