What internet speed do I need at home?

For many one- and two-person households, 100 Mbps is technically sufficient. 500 to 1,000 Mbps provides additional headroom for families and many devices being used at the same time, while 2.5 Gbps and more is intended for households that regularly transfer very large amounts of data.

What determines how much internet speed I need?

The internet speed you need mainly depends on how many people and devices use the connection at the same time and which applications are running in parallel. The number of devices alone is less important. A smartphone in standby mode uses hardly any bandwidth, while several 4K streams, cloud backups, and video conferences running at the same time transfer significantly more data.

These values are guidelines for an entire household and are not technical minimum requirements for individual applications. A single service often needs significantly less bandwidth: Netflix recommends at least 15 Mbps for a 4K stream. For smooth performance, however, three times the minimum requirement is recommended.

What matters is therefore the combined bandwidth of all applications being used at the same time plus sufficient additional headroom.

Is 100 Mbps enough for a household?

Technically, 100 Mbps is fully sufficient for many one- and two-person households. Streaming, working from home, and video conferencing are all possible without problems as long as numerous data-intensive applications are not running at the same time.

For comparison:

• Netflix lists at least 15 Mbps for Ultra HD streaming in 4K.
• Zoom recommends approximately 3.8 Mbps upload and 3.0 Mbps download for a 1080p video call.
• Microsoft Teams can transmit HD video with less than 1.5 Mbps, depending on resolution and usage.

As a general rule, three times the minimum requirement is recommended for smooth performance. With 100 Mbps, a 4K stream, a video conference, and several normal web applications can therefore run at the same time.

Higher speeds become useful when several people stream at the same time, download or upload large files, use cloud services, or work from home. And because the price difference compared with higher speed tiers is currently small, speed is rarely the limiting factor.

How much upload speed do I need?

Upload speed is one of the most commonly underestimated values. It determines how quickly you can send data: video during video conferences, cloud backups, large files to customers, and photos and videos to the cloud.

The difference depends on the technology:

• Over copper (DSL), the connection is asymmetric. Internet Home XS offers up to 20 Mbps upload, while Internet Home M offers up to 100 Mbps.
• Over fiber, the connection is symmetric. Internet Home XS already offers 100 Mbps upload, while Internet Home L offers 1,000 Mbps.

For example, uploading a 10 GB video project to the cloud takes around 67 minutes at 20 Mbps upload, around 13 minutes at 100 Mbps, and around 80 seconds at 1,000 Mbps (theoretical values without overhead).

A few Mbps is sufficient for individual video conferences. However, once several people are in meetings at the same time or a cloud backup is running in the background, upload speed can become the bottleneck rather than download speed.

When do 500 or 1,000 Mbps make sense?

500 to 1,000 Mbps is particularly useful for households in which several people use the internet intensively at the same time. The additional bandwidth does not primarily make individual websites load faster, but instead provides headroom for applications running in parallel.

Typical situations include:

• several TVs streaming in 4K at the same time
• two or more people working from home
• regular large downloads
• cloud backups running in the background
• gaming while streaming and working from home
• many computers, smartphones, tablets, and smart home devices being active at the same time

A family of four therefore does not automatically need 1,000 Mbps. If the household mainly browses the web, streams content, and occasionally works from home, a lower speed tier may also be sufficient.

If you want to know what speed your current connection actually achieves, you can use the Green Internet Speed Test. For a meaningful measurement, Green recommends using a network cable instead of Wi-Fi.

Green Internet Speed Test

When is a 2.5 or 10 Gbps connection worthwhile?

A connection with 2,500 Mbps or more becomes technically worthwhile when very large amounts of data are transferred regularly or several people generate high loads at the same time. This level of bandwidth is not required for normal web browsing, a single 4K stream, or a video conference.

The difference becomes measurable with large downloads. A 100 GB game or backup theoretically takes:

• around 2 hours 13 minutes at 100 Mbps
• around 13 minutes at 1,000 Mbps
• around 5 minutes at 2,500 Mbps

The highest speed tier is therefore particularly useful for:

• regular very large downloads and uploads
• cloud backups of large photo or video archives
• several intensive users at the same time
• households that want additional performance headroom for the coming years

Internet Home XL offers up to 2,500 Mbps, while Internet Home XXL offers up to 10,000 Mbps, both symmetrically over fiber. The speed available at a specific address depends on the existing connection and local network infrastructure.

Hardware is also important: A device with a network interface limited to 1 Gbps cannot use the full 2,500 Mbps on its own. Green notes in its speed test information that hardware with 1 Gbps interfaces can technically reach around 940 Mbps. The higher bandwidth can, however, be shared across several devices at the same time.

How much internet speed do I need for gaming?

For gaming, latency is more important than bandwidth. An online game transfers relatively little data during normal gameplay. The delay you experience depends more on two other measurements:

• Ping: The time between sending a data packet and receiving the response. Lower is better.
• Jitter: The variation in time between receiving two data packets. Lower is better.

A faster internet plan does not automatically improve these values. A wired connection instead of Wi-Fi and a fiber connection instead of copper can be more effective.

Where high bandwidth really helps with gaming is when downloading games and updates. Current games can easily be 100 GB or larger, and this is where the speed tier makes the difference shown above.