[[!meta title="Why is Tor slow?"]]

Users often find that the Tor network is slow. This page describes some
reasons that make Tor slow. For further explanations, see [Why Tor is so
slow?](https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq.html.en#WhySlow)

Tor circuits lengthen the connections
=====================================

Tor provides anonymity by building circuits with three relays. So
instead of connecting directly to the destination server, a connection
is made between each relay of the circuit and this takes more time.

Furthermore, Tor tries to build circuits with relays in different
countries which make connection travel more and appear slower.

Quality of the relays
=====================

The Tor relays are run by volunteers in a decentralized way. So all
relays are not of the same quality. Some are big and fast, while some
others are smaller and slower. As a whole, the network could be faster
if it had more capacity. To improve the capacity of the Tor network, you
can either run a Tor relay yourself or [help existing
relays](https://www.torservers.net/partners.html).

Misuse of the Tor network
=========================

Some people misuse the Tor network, sometimes on purpose or sometimes by
lack of knowledge. For instance, Tor is sometimes used to conduct
[[!wikipedia Ddos#Distributed_attack desc="DDoS attacks"]]. By
doing this, the Tor relays are the ones who actually suffer from the
attack, instead of the intended target.  Some people use [[!wikipedia
Peer_to_peer desc="peer-to-peer software"]] through Tor which
is bad for the network. If you want to use peer-to-peer, it is better to
[[use I2P|doc/anonymous_internet/i2p]].
