Very very high speed. I bought this to replace my vonshef blender since the cups were compatible. Now I have extra cups and jugs, highly recommend this as a replacement for the particular vonshef that’s no longer in the market. Anywho, this blender has power!! Almost like the industrial use ones. The speed is very high, didn’t even try the higher speed. You need to only fill to a maximum of half the blending container otherwise it will blown out or spill. You need to close the blade section tight like iron man otherwise the speed and power will unseal it and spill your contents all over the place. I haven’t had any burning smell but I believe even 60 seconds of running it at this power will cause some components to break. I’ve been running it in pulses or 20 second intervals at most. Just used it for the first time this thanksgiving. I’m anticipating to use it heavily for the holidays hopefully I’ll have an update in January. EDIT: It’s March and the blender’s still going strong. Still very powerful and the blades are still sharp. Sometimes I forget to tighten the blade section and the flour spills all over my face. Annoying but I can live with that. Read more