How fast can a cheetah run?

On the grassy edge of the Okavango Delta, a cheetah wearing a slim tracking collar crouches low. An impala lifts its head. In the next few seconds the collar will record numbers no land animal on record has beaten in the wild.

A cheetah can run at up to 93 km/h (58 mph). That is the fastest speed measured in wild cheetahs, recorded with GPS collars in Botswana by Alan Wilson and colleagues in 2013. An older stopwatch test of one tame cheetah gave about 29 m per second, or 103 km/h (64 mph). Most real hunts are much slower.

What is the fastest speed ever measured for a cheetah?

The fastest reliable figure is about 29 m per second (103 km/h, 64 mph). Craig Sharp timed one adult cheetah over a 201.2 m course with a running start, and averaged three trials. In the wild, the top recorded speed is 25.9 m per second (93 km/h, 58 mph), from GPS collars on five cheetahs in Botswana.

Sharp published his result in the Journal of Zoology in 1997. He called it the highest running speed recorded reliably for any animal. Guinness World Records lists the measurement as 28.7 m/s, made in 1965 with a 35 kg (77 lb) adult female named Pritchelou.

The wild figure comes from Wilson and colleagues, published in Nature in 2013. Their collars combined GPS with motion sensors and logged 367 runs by three females and two males over 17 months, says the Royal Veterinary College release.

The main cheetah speed figures, and where they come from

Figure	How it was measured	Source
93 km/h (58 mph)	GPS and motion-sensor collars, 5 wild cheetahs, 367 runs	Wilson et al. 2013, Nature
About 103 km/h (64 mph)	Timed runs of 1 cheetah over 201.2 m, mean of 3 trials, running start	Sharp 1997, Journal of Zoology
96–112 km/h (60–70 mph)	Given as an average top speed, no measurement cited	Smithsonian’s National Zoo web page

Why are there different numbers for cheetah speed?

Because they measure different things. Sharp timed one cheetah running flat out on a straight course, the best case. The GPS study recorded real hunts, where cheetahs rarely need full speed. Higher figures like 112 km/h (70 mph) are repeated widely, but we could not find a published measurement behind them.

Each method has limits. A stopwatch over 200 m gives an average speed for that stretch, so the cheetah’s peak could have been a little higher or lower at any instant. The GPS collars recorded only the speeds those five cheetahs chose to run while hunting. Neither study proves the absolute limit of every cheetah.

The 112 km/h top figure is a classic “zombie statistic”. Even the Smithsonian’s National Zoo page says cheetahs average 96 to 112 km/h (60 to 70 mph) at top speed, without saying who measured it. The honest summary: about 93 km/h is proven in wild hunts, and about 103 km/h was timed once on a test course.

How long can a cheetah keep up its top speed?

Only for a short dash. The collared cheetahs in Botswana ran an average of 173 m (190 yd) per chase, and their longest runs were 407 to 559 m (445 to 611 yd), says the study team. The Smithsonian says a full sprint lasts about 20 seconds.

Running that fast makes a lot of heat and uses a lot of energy, so a cheetah gives up a chase that is not going well. The study cheetahs started about 1.3 runs a day and covered an average of 6,040 m (about 3.8 miles) a day in total.

How fast does a cheetah accelerate?

Faster than almost any land animal studied. The Smithsonian says a cheetah can go from 0 to 72 km/h (45 mph) in about 2.5 seconds. Wilson’s team recorded some of the highest acceleration, braking and power figures for any land mammal, with acceleration power about four times that of Usain Bolt.

Cornering matters too. The cheetahs often pulled more than 13 m/s² sideways while turning, more than double the 6 m/s² of polo horses, according to the Royal Veterinary College. That is why the study concluded grip and agility, not top speed, are key to catching nimble prey like impala, which made up 75 percent of the cheetahs’ diet.

What makes a cheetah so fast?

Long strides, a flexible body and hind legs that do most of the pushing. At top speed a cheetah covers about 7 m (23 ft) per stride and takes four strides a second, says the Smithsonian. Its blunt, semi-retractable claws grip the ground like running spikes, and its long tail helps it steer.

A 2012 study by Hudson, Corr and Wilson compared cheetahs with racing greyhounds. At 18 m/s (65 km/h), cheetahs carried 70 percent of their weight on their hind legs, compared with 62 percent for greyhounds, which may reduce slipping. Cheetahs also used longer strides at any speed. Read more about the body behind the speed in our guide to cheetah adaptations.

Could you outrun a cheetah?

No. The fastest human ever timed, Usain Bolt, reached about 12.3 m per second (about 44 km/h, 27 mph) in parts of his best 100 m races, says an analysis by Mackala and Mero. A wild cheetah has been recorded at more than twice that speed.

Put another way: in the time Bolt runs 10 m at full speed, a cheetah at 93 km/h covers about 21 m. Cheetahs are not known to hunt people, though, and you are very unlikely ever to need to race one.

Is the cheetah the fastest animal on Earth?

It is the fastest land animal. In the air, a diving peregrine falcon is faster, but that is falling with gravity, not running. See how the cheetah ranks against birds, fish and insects in our list of the fastest animals in the world, and how the falcon does it in peregrine falcon speed.

Why does the cheetah’s speed matter to the savanna?

Speed lets cheetahs hunt fast antelope that other predators struggle to catch, so they help control those herds. But speed costs them. The Smithsonian says cheetahs lose about half their food to lions, hyenas and other bullies. Cheetahs are Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and the Smithsonian estimates 7,500 to 10,000 are left in the wild.

Myths about cheetah speed

Myth: Cheetahs can run at 120 km/h (75 mph).

Fact: The highest reliable figure is about 103 km/h (64 mph), timed over 201 m in 1965. Wild cheetahs have been recorded at 93 km/h. Why people believe it: big round numbers get copied from site to site, and they grow each time.

Myth: Cheetahs run at top speed every time they hunt.

Fact: Wilson’s team found most hunts involved only moderate speeds. Braking and turning mattered more.

Myth: Cheetahs can chase prey for kilometres.

Fact: The average chase was 173 m, and the longest recorded run was 559 m.

Test yourself

1. What is the fastest speed recorded for a wild cheetah?

93 km/h (58 mph), measured with GPS collars in Botswana.

2. Why is the older 103 km/h figure higher?

It came from one cheetah running flat out on a straight, measured course, not from real hunts.

3. What mattered more than top speed in the GPS study?

Grip, acceleration, braking and quick turns.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Wilson, A. M. et al. (2013). Locomotion dynamics of hunting in wild cheetahs. Nature 498: 185-189. doi:10.1038/nature12295.
2. ScienceDaily (Royal Veterinary College news release) (2013). Wild cheetahs accelerate fast and reach speeds of up to 58 miles per hour during a hunt.
3. Sharp, N. C. C. (1997). Timed running speed of a cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus). Journal of Zoology 241: 493-494.
4. Guinness World Records. Fastest mammal on land, over short distances.
5. Hudson, P. E., Corr, S. A. and Wilson, A. M. (2012). High speed galloping in the cheetah and the racing greyhound. Journal of Experimental Biology 215: 2425-2434.
6. Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute. Cheetah.
7. Mackala, K. and Mero, A. (2013). A kinematics analysis of three best 100 m performances ever. Journal of Human Kinetics 36: 149-160.
8. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. Lion.
9. Durant, S. et al. (2022). Acinonyx jubatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Sources checked 12 October 2026.