How Much Speed Do You Really Need?
High-speed internet access keeps us connected at work, home, and play in today’s hyper-connected society where smartphones are seemingly attached to our hands at birth and working from home has become a new normal for millions. Fast internet speeds are key to doing everything you do online at the pace you expect from Zoom meetings to uploading pics on Instagram or simply dominating a game of Wordle.
While we all want a fast internet experience, an interesting question remains: How much speed do you really need? If you’re planning to install new internet service or are thinking of upgrading your existing plan, understanding the level of speed you actually need can help ensure that your speeds are fast enough for your daily connected life, and you might even save a few bucks in the process.
Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how much speed you need because we all use the internet for different things (some of which require faster speeds than others). Heavy-duty gamers, for instance, will need much faster speeds than those who only send emails or browse the web. Similarly, a family of four will likely need far more speed than a single user.
A good rule of thumb is that download speeds of at least 100 Mbps and upload speeds of 10 Mbps are widely considered fast enough to handle nearly any online activity.
At 100 Mbps you can stream 4K high-definition (HD) videos on several devices, download large files for work, or stream HD games on multiple laptops or smartphones in the same home. For an overview of the speeds recommended for several popular online activities, check out the graphic below.
- 2 Mbps Download and Upload Speed: Social Media, Audio Streaming, Email, SD Video streaming
- 10 Mbps Download and Upload Speed: Uploading Photos and Video, HD Streaming, Video Chat
- 25 Mbps Download and Upload Speed: 4k and Beyond Streaming
So how much speed is right for you?
When thinking about your own need for speed, it’s key to consider how your network will be used and how many people will use it. You likely don’t need a ton of speed if you mainly use the internet to browse the web. But for those who work from home or have multiple people using the same connection, you’ll need faster speeds.
It’s also important to keep in mind that internet usage is cumulative. In fact, the number of devices connected to your router might be the most important factor in determining the level of speed your household requires. Across the world, devices are constantly being added to homes, and each of those devices will take up at least some of your network’s speed and bandwidth.
According to networking firm Cisco, every person in the U.S. will have 13.6 connected devices by 2023, and the number of connected devices worldwide will be over three times that of the global population by next year.
Check out the image below to see what you can do online at various speeds, along with how many devices can typically be supported.
Are your speeds fast enough?
| Speed | Category | What you can do with a laptop or smartphone | Number of devices |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-5 Mbps | Slow | SD video streaming, Slack, Microsoft Teams, email, social media, web browsing | 1 |
| 5-20 Mbps | Better (but still meh) | HD video streaming (1080p) | 1 |
| 20-40 Mbps | Solid | 4K video streaming; HD gaming | 1-2 |
| 40-100 Mbps | Good | HD gaming, video streaming, 4K video streaming | 2-3 |
| 100+ Mbps | FAST | Multi-player gaming, 4K video streaming, huge file downloads | 4 |
| 1+ Gbps | Can we say too fast? | Anything you want on multiple devices | 10+ |
How fast are your speeds?
Are you interested to see if your speeds are fast enough for you and your household? Simply run a Speedtest® with your computer or smartphone. To run a Speedtest, make sure you are connected to a network (mobile or broadband), hit the “GO” button, and you’ll see your download and upload speeds, along with latency (ping) and jitter.
Download the free mobile and desktop Speedtest apps for Android and iOS, as well as other platforms, and take a video test to see what your optimum streaming quality is.
Not fast enough?
If your Speedtest shows that your mobile internet connection isn’t as fast as you need on your smartphone, try closing any apps or browsers running in the background that could be slowing you down and run another test. You may also want to restart your phone if your speeds are still slow.
If you’re using a desktop or laptop, check to see if you’re running any downloads/uploads or other programs that might be hogging your bandwidth, such as uploads to Dropbox or streaming content. Close those programs and test again. If your speeds are still low, reboot your computer, modem, and router. If you’re still having issues, check out our troubleshooting guide here.
Check out the Speedtest Performance Directory™ to see how your speeds stack up to what most users in your area experience.