How Fast Is Thor (With & Without His Hammers)?

Thor, the god of thunder and son of Odin, has many superpowers: strength, agility, lightning, and speed.

Although we may not think of it first, Thor is fast. As an Asgardian, Thor possesses superhuman flying ability.

How fast is Thor, with and without his hammers? At minimum, Thor is faster than the speed of sound. At his maximum, Thor is many times faster than the speed of light.

How Fast is Thor with Mjolnir?

Since Thor is already gifted with super strength and speed, he channels his powers through his hammer Mjolnir. The hammer acts as a conduit for how fast he can go.

We could say Mjolnir “enhances” his speed. As Thor spins the hammer in his hand, we can recognize how it serves as a helicopter-of-sorts, a quick one.

Until Thor: Ragnarok, Thor believed his powers came from his hammers, Mjolnir and Stormbreaker. Later, he found out they came from within him.

With Mjolnir, the hammer does not grant Thor his speed, but it appears to ramp up his Odinforce.

As the name implies, Odinforce comes from Thor’s father Odin, and refers to the power Asgardian kings wield. This power combines cosmic and Thor’s life-force energy.

Thor uses Odinforce to create thunder, and he also draws on it for speed during flight and time travel.

With Mjolnir in his hand, Thor moves faster than the speed of sound. He channels his energy into the hammer and it pulls him at 770 mph, compared with the speed of sound at 761 mph.

Marvel’s database also reflects this flight speed. Yet, this is Thor’s speed on Earth. Beyond our planet’s gravity, his surges.

As one article indicated Thor could be faster than the speed of light, allowing him to keep pace with Quicksilver.

This claim coincides with what Marvel says. If we cite the power grid, Thor’s speed is rated at 7, meaning he is faster than light.

On Earth with Mjolnir, Thor moves at the speed of sound. In space with his hammer, he moves beyond the speed of light.

How Fast is Thor with Stormbreaker?

After Hela destroyed Mjolnir (Thor’s sister), Thor created the axe Stormbreaker, with the help of Rocket and Groot.

This weapon also channeled energy like Mjolnir did. It helped Thor conjure lightning and injure Thanos.

Since Stormbreaker provides the power of flight, and other functions, we can say Thor moves as fast as he did with Mjolnir.

Yet, the two weapons are different. For one, whoever wields Stormbreaker does not need to be “worthy” to use it and gain godly power, as Thor or Captain America did with Mjolnir.

Anyone strong enough can pick up Stormbreaker, and it does not generate lightning the way Mjolnir did. These differences may affect Stormbreaker’s speed too, perhaps reducing it.

Stormbreaker could allow Thor to go even faster. He designed this weapon to be more powerful than Mjolnir. After all, Thor landed a square blow to Thanos’ chest in Avengers: Infinity War, and decapitated him in Endgame.

Since he could teleport with this axe, it would stand to reason Thor could draw on this enhanced power to move even faster in flight than before.

At minimum, Thor would be as fast with Stormbreaker as he is with Mjolnir.

How Fast is Thor Without his Hammers?

Thor is swift on his own. As this video conveys, he has quick reaction speed and can deflect bullets, which reflects Thor moving at two times the speed of sound.

The above video also relays how Thor moved faster than Quicksilver. To put that in perspective, Quicksilver moves over 2,000 miles per second, more than twice the speed of sound.

This last comparison, however, includes Mjolnir with Thor. So, it may tempt us to temper it.

However, we should remember Thor’s powers come from within him, and not from Mjolnir. So Thor should move just as fast on his own. Or nearly as fast.

As explained above, Mjolnir enhances Thor’s powers, so the hammer probably gives him an extra speed boost.

Thor often takes flight with his hammer. Throwing his hammer then taking flight is how he gains his top speed.

Without his hammers, Thor is as fast as the speed of sound and could move faster, but he must use Mjolnir and Stormbreaker to move at the speed of light.

Is Thor Faster than Superman or the Flash?

Superman can travel at the speed of light, which is 186,000 miles per second and might go 1,000 times faster than that speed.

With that in mind, some articles claim Superman is faster than Thor. Let’s look at an example to help verify.

In the Marvel comics, Superman travels from Pluto to the Earth, almost 4.7 billion miles, in seconds. How much faster than the speed of light did Superman go?

At about 670 million miles per hour, it takes over 5 hours for light to reach us from Pluto, or 18,000 seconds. If Superman did this journey in 4 seconds, he flew 4,500 times faster than the speed of light.

With such estimates, Superman appears to be faster than Thor.

What about the Flash?

The Flash also moves beyond light speed. One estimate calculates it would take the Flash 0.1 seconds to go around the Earth. This is Superman-like speed, to whom they often compare the Flash.

With the Flash’s use of Speed Force, he seems to outpace Superman. So Flash too would be faster than Thor.

Some fans estimated Flash moves over 9 million times the speed of light. That would make him much faster than Thor.

Calculations based on the comics place Thor’s top speed with Mjolnir three billion times faster than the speed of light.

If we go by these figures, Thor would be faster than the Flash and Superman.

How Fast is Thor?

Thor is not known for speed, but he is near the top of the Marvel list. On Earth, Thor is faster than the speed of sound, with and without his hammers.

Beyond the Earth, Thor goes faster than the speed of light with his hammers. He is probably not as fast as Superman and the Flash. Yet, the comics provide evidence that he could be.

Todd Wahlstrom

Todd Wahlstrom is a creative and analytical freelance writer and life-long Star Wars fan who has expanded into writing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He has written about recent shows such as The Mandalorian and Andor and classic topics like Darth Vader, the Jedi, and Boba Fett. His recent articles include the MCU’s Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor. Todd is the author of a non-fiction book, holds a Ph.D. in history, and enjoys hiking, running, and reading about science.