To find that sweet spot, you’ll want to follow these steps: Don’t forget to count yourself when you tally up everyone who connects to your internet. Other potential internet users can include your partner or spouse, children, housemates, and even frequent visitors, like friends, grandkids, or siblings. Gamers also need an internet connection and router with low latency and good bandwidth—and maybe some upload speed to top it off. Find out which ISPs we recommend for online gaming so you or your gamer housemate doesn’t get pwned. You might only have 2 or 3 people using your internet, but each person can have multiple devices connected to your Wi-Fi at one time so this may take some thinking. There are so many smart devices that use your wireless network in today’s world. It’s easy to forget how many you have at home, but this list of common connected devices might help jog your memory: Each of these activities needs different speeds—otherwise you’ll run into laggy internet or that dreaded buffering icon. Here’s a quick look at the bare minimum internet speed you’ll need for a few common online activities. It’s more likely you’re a multitasking machine when it comes to doing things online. You’re streaming Dopesick on Hulu while you check email, download an HD video to watch later tonight, and hop into a Call of Duty match. And your roommate, kid, or partner is doing the same things at the same time that you are. This is why most ISPs don’t offer internet plans with just 5 Mbps—they’re offering you 50, 100, or even 1,000 Mbps plans, so you can keep doing what you do best online. Download speed is how fast data is being transferred from the internet to your device. A bulk of most people’s internet usage relies on a fast download speed to load web pages, music, and streaming videos. We’ll start by going over our recommended baseline speed per person and device.
People: 25 Mbps per person Devices (not 4K): 10 Mbps per device Devices (4K): 25 Mbps per 4K device
Okay, now let’s see how those recommended speeds add up with an example. Let’s say we have a home with two adults and two children who all use the internet. Here’s a list of the internet speeds each person gets, plus the internet speeds each of their devices gets.
People: 25 Mbps x 4 = 100 Mbps Desktop computer: 10 Mbps x 2 = 20 Mbps Laptop: 10 Mbps Tablet: 10 Mbps Mobile device: 10 Mbps x 3 = 30 Mbps Smart TV (4K): 25 Mbps x 2 = 50 Mbps Xbox gaming console: 10 Mbps Wi-Fi printer: 10 Mbps Home security system hub: 10 Mbps Home security camera: 10 Mbps x 2 = 20 Mbps Total: 270 Mbps
The recommended internet speed for this family is 270 Mbps. That may seem like a lot of speed, and you’re probably right. This recommendation assumes that every person and every wireless device is online at the same time. That’s where online activities can factor in. If the family knows they usually stream 4K videos on one of their TVs about once a week and in the evening when no one’s on their computers, gaming on the Xbox, or using the printer, they can probably knock this speed down a bit to 200 Mbps. If the family knows no one uses the computers and tablet for working or studying from home, they might even be able to get away with 100 or 150 Mbps. Enter your zip code, and we’ll pull up a full list of internet providers available in your area. Then you can easily check what plans they have for you and how much each plan costs. Easy, peasy.
