Sending a fax normally takes between 30 to 60 seconds per page.

The factors that affect the duration of sending a fax

1. The number of pages in the fax. Clearly, the more pages there are in a fax the longer it takes to send it.
2. The resolution setting on the fax machine - Fax device resolution can be "standard" at 204 x 98 dpi or "fine" at 204 x 196 dpi. A higher resolution setting will cause each fax page to take longer to send.
3. The fax machine transmission speed - Fax machines can send faxes at different rates, with modern machines typically being capable of faster fax transmission speeds than older machines. Standard rates (also called baud rates) of fax machines range from 2,400 to 28,800 bits per second, with nine steps in between. These exist so that fax machines can negotiate the optimal baud rate between them given various conditions.
4. Phone line quality - "Noisy" phone lines will affect the fax transmission speed. The sending and receiving fax devices know how to negotiate the rate at which they communicate, and reduce it on noisier lines, taking the fax longer to send.
5. Phone line type - Phone lines can run on different types of infrastructure, one of which is Voice over IP (VOIP). VOIP is optimized for voice calls, meaning it is capable of relaying a large number of voice calls on a relatively low-bandwidth IP connection. VOIP takes advantage of our brain's capacity to fill in occasional missing bits in speech transmission, a capacity which unfortunately does not exist on fax machines. Therefore, faxing is likely to fail on a regular (non-fax-optimized) VOIP lines similarly to how it would fail on a very degraded regular phone line.
6. The level of detail in the fax - This will reduce the compression that a fax machine can apply to the transmission. Low-detail faxes get compressed more than high-detail faxes. So, a high-resolution document will take longer to transmit than a lower-resolution document.
7. Error Correction Mode - Also known as ECM, this is a setting that determines whether the sending and receiving fax machines should verify absolute correctness of the image being transmitted. While it raises the reliability of the fax, it also reduces the transmission speed slightly.

Does using online faxing make a difference?

When you use an online faxing service, you're actually using your internet connection to outsource the task of faxing. Someone (actually, a server) somewhere needs to take on the task of sending a fax over regular telephone lines. So the answer is, no, using online faxing does not make a difference in the transmission time of a fax.

Is it faster to fax or mail?

In general, email is usually faster than faxing. This is especially true if both parties are using up-to-date equipment with good internet connections. Faxing can still be useful in some situations, such as when you need to send a confidential document or when you don't have an internet connection. However, for most purposes email is a faster choice than faxing.

How do I know if my fax was sent?

When you send a fax, you usually receive a confirmation that the fax has been sent. This confirmation will typically include the date and time that the fax was sent, as well as the recipient's fax number. If you don't receive a confirmation, it's likely that the fax didn't go through.

Note that it's possible that the problem isn't on your end. Sometimes fax machines get jammed or disconnected, so it may be that the fax was sent successfully but never got to the recipient. If this is the case, try sending another fax.