Synthetic Traffic
Synthetic traffic is automated, scripted traffic that a tool sends to a website, API, or network on a schedule instead of real users. Teams use it to test uptime, speed, and key flows before a customer notices a problem.
TL;DR
Synthetic traffic is automated traffic that a tool generates and sends to a website, API, or network on a schedule, in place of real users. A script fires a request, checks the response against rules you set, and reports the result. The practice built on it is called synthetic monitoring: it catches outages and slow pages before a customer does.
What synthetic traffic is used for
The point of generating your own traffic is control: it runs where, when, and how you decide, whether real visitors show up or not.
- Uptime: Scheduled checks confirm an endpoint is reachable and answering within a set time, around the clock.
- Transactions: Scripted flows verify that login, checkout, or search still work end to end, especially right after a deploy.
- Coverage: Checks keep running at 3 a.m. on a Sunday or in a staging environment, where real-user data has nothing to measure.
- Network paths: Synthetic network traffic measures loss, jitter, and one-way latency between hops, so you find which link is slow.
- Certificates: An expired SSL certificate is a calendar-driven outage; a daily check makes it impossible to miss.
How to set up synthetic traffic
Define the request
Start with what would wake someone up if it broke: your homepage, main API, login flow. Pick the protocol to match the target; UDP for network devices, TCP or HTTP for application servers.
Set the schedule
Match the interval to the behavior. Network microbursts need millisecond-level tests, application servers do fine at 30 seconds to a minute, and stable SaaS checks at 1 to 5 minutes.
Add assertions
A 200 status code is the floor. Add a response-time threshold, and a stricter "degraded" level (say, 300 ms) below the hard failure line (1,500 ms) to catch slow creep.
Configure retries
One dropped packet should not page anyone. Two or three retries before a failure counts as real absorb transient blips.
Tag the traffic
Mark every synthetic request with a distinct user agent or header so you can filter it out of analytics later.
Synthetic traffic vs. real user traffic
| Synthetic traffic | Real user traffic | |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Scripts you wrote and scheduled | Actual visitors |
| Behaviour | Scripted, scheduled, and predictable | Everything visitors do, including the long tail of devices, browsers, and network conditions |
| Coverage | Exactly the paths you scripted, with or without visitors | Every path visitors take, but only while they are on the site |
| Blind spot | Misses everything you didn't think to script | Goes silent when nobody is on the site, which is precisely when you still need coverage |
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Keeping synthetic traffic out of your metrics
Untagged synthetic requests show up as real visitors. A burst of checks during a deploy reads as a traffic spike, inflates request-rate dashboards, and skews conversion math because scripts never buy anything.
Tag at the source, filter in every reporting tool, and re-check after adding new monitors.
With AI crawlers and agents already adding non-human visits of their own, knowing which traffic you generated is the first step to knowing which traffic you earned.
Frequently asked questions
Is synthetic traffic the same as bot traffic?
No. Bot traffic covers any automated visitor, including scrapers, spam bots, and AI crawlers you never invited. Synthetic traffic is deliberate: your own tools sending requests you designed, for testing and monitoring. Ownership and intent separate the two.
Does synthetic traffic affect analytics or SEO?
It distorts analytics if you leave it untagged, because every check registers as a visit with zero engagement. Filter it by user agent or header. Search rankings are a different matter; synthetic checks neither build nor harm them.
How often should synthetic checks run?
Match the interval to what you're trying to catch. Millisecond-level intervals for network microbursts, 1 to 5 seconds for voice and video paths, 30 seconds to a minute for application servers, and 1 to 5 minutes for stable SaaS health checks.