Slow download speed via Web browser on macOS Mojave I am trying to download a big file from the internet (~4GB), but for some reason the download is extremely slow. An Internet speed test says I have a 4Mbps download speed, but the browser download never exceeds 500Kbps and sometimes gets as low as 25Kbps.

I read on here about people switching away from Apple applications, but switching to Google Chrome hasn't altered the download speed. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I am using a baseline 2019 15" MacBook Pro. I understand that many variables can affect download speed, but I was posting here in case this was a problem that people had faced before.
Your Internet connection speed alone doesn't determine the download speed that you will get when fetching a file from a remote site. You Internet bandwidth determines the maximum speed that you get when transferring content from a remote computer.

The remote computer (download host) may also have upload bandwidth restrictions due to variety of reasons. The upload speed of the remote computer in-effect considered in addition with your download speed determines the transfer speed you get.

It appears that the site you are trying to download data from have such restriction in place. To alleviate, try using an alternate download mechanism available on the site, via a different protocol or a download mirror.



To verify if you are receiving speed advertised by your ISP in the installed Web Browsers, you can simply check with one of the Internet speed testing websites.