What is a good internet speed?
Almost every speed recommendation you will read is written by someone who profits from you buying a bigger plan. Here is the version that is not.
The short answer
For most households, 100 Mbps down is enough and the upload number matters more than the download number. A 500 Mbps plan does not make a video call better than a 100 Mbps plan. A 20 Mbps upload versus a 500 Mbps upload absolutely does.
The reason the industry advertises download speed is that download speed is where cable is competitive. Upload is where it is not.
What each activity actually needs
| Activity | Download | Upload |
|---|---|---|
| Web, email, social | 5 Mbps | 1 Mbps |
| HD streaming, per stream | 5 Mbps | n/a |
| 4K streaming, per stream | 25 Mbps | n/a |
| Video call, per participant | 4 Mbps | 4 Mbps |
| Online gaming | 5 Mbps | 2 Mbps |
| Cloud backup running | n/a | as much as you have |
| Uploading video | n/a | as much as you have |
These are steady-state requirements for the activity itself. Add them up for everyone in the house doing things simultaneously, then add headroom.
By household
- One or two people, streaming and browsing. 100 Mbps down. Upload rarely matters. Do not pay for a gigabit.
- Family of four, one or two people working from home. 200 to 300 Mbps down, and this is where upload starts to bite. Look for 20 Mbps up as a floor, more if you can get it.
- Anyone uploading large files: video, photography, backups, streaming to an audience. Upload is the entire decision. This is the household where fiber is worth real money and cable is genuinely frustrating.
- A house full of 4K TVs. Even four simultaneous 4K streams is about 100 Mbps. Download is almost never the constraint people think it is.
What is a good upload speed?
Asked on its own, the honest answer is 20 Mbps up is a sensible floor for a household, 5 Mbps is workable for one or two people who mostly consume, and anything above 50 Mbps only pays for itself if you regularly push large files out: video, photo libraries, cloud backup, streaming to an audience.
The reason this question gets asked separately from download speed is that the two are not sold the same way. Cable plans advertise a large download and a much smaller upload, often a tenth of it or less. Fiber plans are frequently symmetrical, so the same number applies both ways. That difference is usually more consequential than the headline download figure, and it is decided by which technology reaches your building rather than by which plan you pick.
Check before you shop. If the only wired option at your address is cable, no amount of paying more buys you a fiber upload. See what actually reaches your address first, then choose the plan.
Do you need gigabit?
Usually not. A gigabit plan is worth buying when the upload side comes with it. On fiber, a 1 Gbps plan is frequently 1 Gbps both ways, and that symmetry is the real product. On cable, a gigabit download plan can still carry an upload in the tens of megabits, which is the same upload you would get on a much cheaper tier.
Check the upload figure before you pay for the download figure. If the provider does not display it prominently, that is informative.
What speeds can you actually get?
This is the part the speed guides skip. Nationally, the FCC records fiber at 1 Gbps as available to about half of US homes, but that average is meaningless for any specific address, because fiber was built street by street. In our own analysis of every US census block, roughly one in eight residential locations sits in a block where fiber exists but does not reach that location.
See what is available at your address →
More on why the technology decides the upload number: fiber vs cable. And if your current connection is underperforming what you pay for, that is a different problem, so start here.