How Fast Is E. coli Bacterium?

E. coli swims at around 20 microns per second using rotating flagella — that's 10 body lengths per second. Scaled up to human size proportionally, this would be the equivalent of 72 km/h — faster than any car.

Scaled to human size, an E. coli would swim at about 72 km/h.

• 5× faster than amoeba crawl
• 5× slower than a sperm cell