- How Much Internet Speed Do I Need?
- See Your Options in Below
- What is a good internet speed?
- Follow these tips as you determine your ideal internet speed
- What you can do with different internet speeds
- What is fast internet?
- What are the fastest internet providers?
- Fastest internet providers- April 2022 to April 2023
- Find out if you can get the fastest internet providers in your area
- What are the fastest internet connection types?
- Is gigabit internet worth it?
- Do you need a 2,000Mbps internet plan?
- What is a fast upload speed?
- Test and track your internet speed on your phone
- How do you calculate the internet speed you need?
- How many Mbps you need per device for common internet activities
- How many people use your internet connection?
- How many smart devices do you have?
- Internet bandwidth vs. speed
How Much Internet Speed Do I Need?
We’ll give you a personalized internet speed recommendation based on how you use the internet.
How many people in your household use the internet/WiFi on a daily basis?
How many devices in your home connect to the internet, including tablets, gaming consoles, and smart devices?
How many people in your household work from home?
What video quality do you use for streaming TV and movies?
How intensely does your household participate in online gaming?
Does your household download large files from the cloud or via the internet?
Our minimum speed recommendation for you:
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available in your area and pick the right one for you.
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See Your Options in Below
What is a good internet speed?
A good download speed is at least 100Mbps, and a good upload speed is at least 10 Mbps. With 100Mbps, you can watch Netflix or YouTube, attend Zoom meetings, and play most online games on several devices at the same time.
Some people can get away with fewer Mbps, and others need more. If 100Mbps doesn’t seem like a good fit for you, use the tool above to get a personalized recommendation. Or you can calculate the internet speed you need using the steps below.
Follow these tips as you determine your ideal internet speed
- Take aspeed test to learn what speed you have right now.
- Get at least 25Mbps download speeds if you regularly use Netflix, Zoom, and other popular apps.
- Upgrade to a faster speed if you share your Wi-Fi with lots of users, use lots of Wi-Fi devices, and/or want to avoid excessive slowdowns or buffering.
- Don’t get gigabit internet unless you really need it—you can save money and still get fast speeds with a slower plan.
- Keep your router up-to-date and place it in a central area in your home to ensure you get the most out of your hardware.
What you can do with different internet speeds
| Internet download speed | Works for | Ideal number of Wi-Fi users |
|---|---|---|
| 0–5Mbps | -Checking email -Streaming music on one device -Searching on Google | 1–2 people |
| 5–40Mbps | -Streaming video on one device -Video conferencing with Skype or FaceTime -Online gaming for one player | 3–4 people |
| 40–100Mbps | -Streaming HD video on a few devices -Multiplayer online gaming -Downloading large files | 5–7 people |
| 100–500Mbps | -Streaming video in UHD on multiple screens -Downloading files quickly -Gaming online for multiple players | 8–10 people |
| 500–1,000+Mbps | -Doing a lot of almost anything on numerous devices simultaneously | More than 10 people |
What is fast internet?
Fast internet is a connection with speeds of 100Mbps and up.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines broadband internet speed as 25Mbps for download and 3Mbps for upload speed. Although that’s enough speed for basic internet use, it’s actually a bit slow by today’s standards, since many internet service providers offer 100Mbps speeds as basic-level plans. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has advocated for raising the baseline definition of broadband speed to be 100Mbps.
On the high end, residential internet speeds can reach up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) of download speed, or 1,000Mbps. Several providers—including AT&T, Google Fiber, Verizon, Frontier, and Xfinity—offer multigigabit plans with speeds ranging from 2Gbps to 10Gbps.
What are the fastest internet providers?
According to our Fastest Internet Providers report, Google Fiber consistently gets the fastest internet speeds. Verizon, Xfinity, Cox, and Metronet also rank in the top five fastest providers.
Google Fiber’s customers get average download speeds of 176.19Mbps from April 2022 to April 2023. You can order an internet plan with speeds of up to 2,000Mbps. In our report, we give the provider an integrated speed score of 176.16.
We calculate speed-test results every three months to generate integrated speed scores for the top-performing internet providers. We make the ISS by adding 90% of a provider’s average download speed to 10% of the provider’s average upload speed, a blend that reflects the relative importance of these different speeds to a user’s needs.
See the table below for more info.
Fastest internet providers- April 2022 to April 2023
Find out if you can get the fastest internet providers in your area
Run a search with our zip code tool to find out
What are the fastest internet connection types?
| Internet type | Max speed | Availability (for % of US population)* | View providers online |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fiber | 5,000Mbps (5 Gbps) | 36.2% | View Providers |
| Cable | 1,200Mbps (1.2 Gbps) | 82.8% | View Providers |
| DSL | 100Mbps | 57.6% | View Providers |
| 5G | 1,000Mbps (1 Gbps) | N/A** | View Providers |
| 4G LTE | 9–50Mbps | N/A** | View Providers |
| Fixed wireless | 100Mbps | 93.7% | View Providers |
| Satellite | 100Mbps | 99.9% | View Providers |
Data as of 5/23/23. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.
*Percentages are based on internet availability data from the Federal Communications Commission.
**Figures not currently available.
Is gigabit internet worth it?
Gigabit internet is worth it if you use a large amount of bandwidth on a regular basis. It’s also worth it if you share your Wi-Fi with a bunch of roommates or family members. But it’s expensive and faster than most people need, so it’s not worth it for the average user.
It’s not necessary if you spend most of your online time doing things like checking email, streaming video in HD, and video conferencing over Zoom or Skype, since those activities require much less bandwidth. But other activities take up more bandwidth and thus require much faster speeds.
Activities that benefit from gigabit internet:
- Streaming video in 4K
- Hosting livestreams
- Downloading large files
- Uploading large files or backing up hard-drives to cloud servers
Do you need a 2,000Mbps internet plan?
There’s no reason to have an internet plan in the range of 2,000Mbps or faster right now.
Having internet that fast is like owning a lifted 4WD work truck. You likely don’t have any opportunity to use all that power unless you’re involved in some industrial-grade internet activity, like mining cryptocurrency with dozens of computers all on the same Wi-Fi.
What is a fast upload speed?
A fast internet upload speed is at least 10Mbps. But some internet plans give you much faster uploads, and fiber connections can deliver gigabit upload speeds.
Uploads involve loading data onto the internet. People spend the majority of their time downloading data from the internet, not uploading it, so traditionally uploads have been set at much lower speeds. In many cases an internet service provider’s download speeds will be up to 15 times faster than the uploads.
However, fiber internet providers usually deliver symmetrical speeds, giving you uploads that are just as fast as downloads—with uploads hitting 1,000Mbps or higher on the highest-tier plans.
Test and track your internet speed on your phone
Download our free, easy-to-use speed test app for quick and reliable results.
How do you calculate the internet speed you need?
You can calculate your internet speed requirements by considering the common types of activities you do online, the number of people who use your Wi-Fi, and how many Wi-Fi devices you tend to use in your home.
Here are a few main principles to keep in mind:
- You don’t need fast internet for simple tasks (like checking email and streaming music)
- You need faster speeds for complex tasks (especially streaming video and downloading large files)
- You benefit from faster speeds when multiple people use your Wi-Fi
- You get better performance with faster speeds if you have many Wi-Fi smart devices in your home
How many Mbps you need per device for common internet activities
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| 1Mbps | 1Mbps | |
| Web browsing | 3Mbps | 5Mbps |
| Social media | 3Mbps | 10Mbps |
| Streaming SD video | 3Mbps | 10Mbps |
| Streaming HD video | 5Mbps | 25Mbps |
| Streaming 4K video | 25Mbps | 100Mbps |
| Online gaming | 5Mbps | 100Mbps |
| Streaming music | 1Mbps | 5Mbps |
| One-on-one video calls | 1Mbps | 25Mbps |
| Video conference calls | 2Mbps | 50Mbps |
| Minimum | 1Mbps |
| Recommended | 1Mbps |
| Web browsing | |
| Minimum | 3Mbps |
| Recommended | 5Mbps |
| Social media | |
| Minimum | 3Mbps |
| Recommended | 10Mbps |
| Streaming SD video | |
| Minimum | 3Mbps |
| Recommended | 10Mbps |
| Streaming HD video | |
| Minimum | 5Mbps |
| Recommended | 25Mbps |
| Streaming 4K video | |
| Minimum | 25Mbps |
| Recommended | 100Mbps |
| Online gaming | |
| Minimum | 5Mbps |
| Recommended | 100Mbps |
| Streaming music | |
| Minimum | 1Mbps |
| Recommended | 5Mbps |
| One-on-one video calls | |
| Minimum | 1Mbps |
| Recommended | 25Mbps |
| Video conference calls | |
| Minimum | 2Mbps |
| Recommended | 50Mbps |
How many people use your internet connection?
You want fast internet to cover the total number of people and devices that connect to your Wi-Fi. If you live with a roommate, for example, you need enough speed to support each of your own laptops, smartphones, and gaming consoles. You also want bandwidth to support devices that are connected in the background, like smart home tech.
A good target to aim for is 25Mbps for each person in your household. So if you live with three people, then 100Mbps is perfect for your home Wi-Fi.
How many smart devices do you have?
The average American household has 25 smart devices connected to Wi-Fi, according to a 2021 survey by Deloitte. Not all of those smart devices take up a lot of bandwidth individually, but together they can have a significant impact on your internet connection. Smart TVs, tablets, and security cameras use up the most speed because they’re often used to stream video. Consider getting a faster plan if you or your roommates use a lot of smart devices at home.
Internet bandwidth vs. speed
Internet speed and bandwidth are often used interchangeably, but they’re not exactly the same thing.
If the internet is a road and data are the cars, speed is how fast the cars travel, and bandwidth is the number of open lanes.
So, say you have 100 data cars all going the same speed—you’ll get your data faster if those cars are traveling on a five-lane highway compared to a one-lane back road.