We have measured the pumping speed of the Zr–Al alloy bulk getter over a pressure range of 10−5 to 10−2 Torr. The temporal evolution of the pumping speed closely follows the behavior predicted by a theoretical model for bulk gettering. In particular, for pressure P above ∼5×10−3 Torr, the pumping speed decreases as P−1/2. From the high pressure data, we have measured the bulk diffusivity of H in Zr–Al to be D=exp [−4.0(1.1)−9100(450)/T] cm2 s−1, with T the getter temperature in K. This is in good agreement with values obtained from desorption measurements.