How much broadband speed do I need? A simple household calculation
Providers sell plans from 30 Mb/s to several gigabits. The right one depends on what your household does at the same time, not on how many devices you own.
Speeds per activity
| Activity | Download | Upload |
|---|---|---|
| Web browsing, email, social media | 1-2 Mb/s | under 1 Mb/s |
| Music streaming | under 0.5 Mb/s | - |
| Video streaming, SD | about 1-3 Mb/s | - |
| Video streaming, HD 1080p | about 5 Mb/s | - |
| Video streaming, 4K | about 15-25 Mb/s | - |
| Video call, HD | about 2-4 Mb/s | about 2-4 Mb/s |
| Online gaming (playing) | about 3-6 Mb/s | about 1 Mb/s |
| Game, app and system downloads | As fast as you have: this is where faster plans show | |
| Cloud photo and file backup | - | As fast as you have |
These are typical published recommendations, not exact figures; apps adjust quality to what's available. For how much data these use per hour (for capped plans), see the streaming data calculator.
Add up your busiest moment
Pick your busiest normal moment, often a weekday evening, and add the activities happening together. Then multiply by about 1.5: Wi-Fi rarely delivers the full line speed to every room, and the shared network gives a little less at peak time.
| Household | Busiest moment | Adds up to | With headroom |
|---|---|---|---|
| One person | HD film + phone browsing | about 7 Mb/s | about 10 Mb/s: any 30 Mb/s plan is plenty |
| Couple, one working from home | Video call + HD film + browsing | about 11 Mb/s | about 17 Mb/s: 30-50 Mb/s is comfortable |
| Family of four | 4K TV + HD tablet + video call + online game + browsing | about 41 Mb/s | about 62 Mb/s: 70-100 Mb/s is comfortable |
| Busy shared house | Two 4K TVs + two calls + two games + browsing | about 70 Mb/s | about 105 Mb/s: 150 Mb/s or more |
(Family of four worked out: 25 + 5 + 4 + 5 + 2 = 41 Mb/s, and 41 × 1.5 is about 62 Mb/s.)
When faster plans help, and when they don't
- Big downloads scale with speed. A 100 GB game takes about 2 h 13 min at 100 Mb/s, 27 min at 500 Mb/s and about 13 min at 1 Gb/s (100 GB × 8 = 800,000 megabits). See Mbps vs MB/s for the maths.
- Streaming and calls don't: once a 4K stream has its 25 Mb/s, more speed doesn't make it look better.
- Lag in games and calls is usually about ping and your router's queue, not speed. A 1 Gb/s plan can still lag when someone uploads; see bufferbloat and good ping.
- Wi-Fi often caps what a phone or laptop can reach at a few hundred Mb/s, so gigabit plans mostly show on wired devices and new Wi-Fi 6 or 7 kit close to the router.
Don't forget upload
Many plans have an upload speed far lower than the download. Each HD video call wants about 2 to 4 Mb/s up, live streaming wants 5 to 10 Mb/s up, and cloud backups and video uploads go as fast as the upload allows. If two people work from home or you back up lots of photos, aim for at least 10 to 20 Mb/s up. See upload speed for video calls and how long an upload takes.
Speed numbers on the advert
Advertised speeds are usually the best case or an average. Look for the peak-time or minimum guaranteed speed, which is closer to what you'll get at 9 pm, and remember the speed is in megabits: a 100 Mb/s plan downloads at most about 12.5 MB/s.
Related
Why speed tests disagree · Broadband speed calculator: what your household needs · Internet slow in the evening · What is a contention ratio? · Lag when someone downloads (bufferbloat) · Video keeps buffering · Mbps vs MB/s · Interactive: turn on the taps
Questions
Is 50 Mb/s enough for a family?
Usually yes for streaming and calls: four people doing HD streaming, a video call and browsing at once need about 20-30 Mb/s. Two or more 4K TVs at the same time, or lots of big game downloads, are when 100 Mb/s or more starts to help.
How much speed do I need for 4K streaming?
About 15 to 25 Mb/s per 4K stream, depending on the service. Leave some headroom if other people use the connection at the same time.
What speed do I need for gaming?
Playing online uses only about 3 to 6 Mb/s. Low ping and a router that doesn't queue up traffic matter far more. Faster plans mainly help with downloading games and updates.
What upload speed do I need to work from home?
About 2 to 4 Mb/s per HD video call, so 10 Mb/s or more is comfortable for one or two people working from home. Cloud backups and uploading videos benefit from more.
Is gigabit broadband worth it?
Mostly for very big downloads, households with many heavy users, or uploading lots of large files on a plan with fast upload. Streaming and calls don't get better past what they need.
Why is my speed lower than my plan?
Wi-Fi losses, other people in the house using it, the device itself, and busy evenings at the provider. Test on a cable with everything else paused to see what the line really delivers.
Published .