Technology for characterizing internet application performance is described. An example method may involve, analyzing client requests from a plurality of internet service providers, the client requests comprising requests to access media items and being associated with internet service provider identities; identifying a set of the client requests that are associated with a first internet service provider; determining for at least one client request of the set: a request time, a payload data quantity, and an elapsed time; calculating a transfer rate comprising an application level throughput for the at least one client request, the transfer rate being based on the payload data quantity and the elapsed time; and calculating a performance measurement of the first and second internet service providers, the performance measurements being based on the transfer rate and on a portion of the set of client requests that have a transfer rate meeting a transfer threshold.