Introduction

Scan speed controls how many requests Astra's scanner sends to your target per second. Adjusting this setting helps balance between thorough scanning and minimizing performance impact on your application. This guide walks you through changing the scan speed for a specific target.

Prerequisites

• Access to the Astra dashboard

• An active target already set up and verified

• Workspace Full Member role or higher

How Scan Speed Works

The scan speed setting controls two factors working together:

• Concurrent requests — how many requests are sent simultaneously

• Delay between requests — how long the scanner waits between each batch of requests (measured in milliseconds)

For example, if you set a delay of 100 milliseconds with 5 concurrent threads, the scanner sends 5 requests simultaneously and waits 100 milliseconds before sending the next batch.

• Higher scan speed — faster scan completion, higher load on your target

• Lower scan speed — slower scan completion, reduced performance impact on your target

Steps

1. Log in to your Astra dashboard

2. Navigate to the Targets page from the left sidebar

3. Locate and click on the target you want to adjust

4. Go to Target Settings → General Settings

5. Find the Scan Speed section

6. Use the slider to increase or decrease the scan speed based on your requirements

7. Click Save Changes

The updated scan speed will apply to all future scans on this target.

Expected Outcome

After saving, all subsequent scans on this target will run at the updated speed. Existing in-progress scans are not affected — the new setting applies from the next scan onward.

Troubleshooting

Target is experiencing slowdowns during scanning

• Reduce the scan speed by moving the slider toward the lower end

• If slowdowns persist even at the lowest setting, consider scheduling scans during off-peak hours using the Automations tab

Scan is taking too long to complete

• Increase the scan speed if your target can handle additional load

• Consider running a Lightning Scan instead of a Full Scan for faster results on time-sensitive assessments. See What are the different vulnerability scan types for details

Save Changes button not responding

• Clear your application cache by pressing Ctrl+Shift+K on Windows or Cmd+K on Mac, search for "Clear Cache", and retry

• Confirm you have Workspace Full Member role or higher — read-only roles cannot modify target settings

Scan speed setting reverts after saving

• Refresh the Target Settings page to confirm the change was saved correctly

• If the setting continues to revert, raise a support ticket from your Astra dashboard