How Much Internet Speed Do I Need? (2026 Calculator Guide)
Paying for more speed than you use is wasted money; too little means buffering and frustration. Here's what you actually need, by use case.
By activity (per device)
- Browsing & email: 5–10 Mbps
- HD video streaming: 5–10 Mbps
- 4K streaming: 25 Mbps
- Video calls (Zoom/Teams): 3–5 Mbps up and down
- Online gaming: 10–25 Mbps (low ping matters more than speed)
- Large downloads / cloud backup: as much upload as you can get
By household
1–2 people, light use: 50–100 Mbps. Family of 4 streaming and gaming: 200–500 Mbps. Heavy household with 4K, work-from-home and many smart devices: 500 Mbps–1 Gbps.
Don't forget upload
Video calls, cloud backups and posting content all use upload. Cable plans often have low upload (10–35 Mbps); fibre offers symmetric speeds. If your calls freeze while your download is fine, upload is likely the bottleneck.
Speed isn't everything
A 1 Gbps plan with high bufferbloat feels worse than a 100 Mbps plan with low latency. Run our test and check the bufferbloat grade and loaded latency — those predict how good your connection feels, not just how big the number is.
Free, instant, no app — see your download, upload, ping & bufferbloat.
Run the speed test →