What Broadband Speed Do I Need? | What is a Good Speed? (2024)

Dan Howdle | January 9th, 2024

In the world of broadband, megabits are abstract. Though most of us understand the more the megabits the faster the broadband, few of us comprehend how that applies to our household. Is 10Mbps enough? What about 50? Or 500?

Broadband speed recommendations

As a general rule, you'll need 10Mbps per broadband user. Double this to 20Mbps for each user if they're streaming 4K content or gaming.

Broadband speed is measured in ‘megabits’, and most of us understand that the higher the speed, the faster you can download files and the higher quality your streaming content will be.

What many people struggle with is how to apply average broadband speeds to the needs of their household, so they can choose a broadband deal with an internet speed that is right for their requirements.

The speed of your home broadband is important. If it isn’t fast enough for the number of people you live with, and the things you do online, you’re likely to experience irritating delays and connection issues. These will be worse when everyone tries to get online at the same time.

On the flip side, if your broadband speed is faster than you need, you’ll end up paying more than you should.

If you're unsure about what broadband speed you need, click on the button below and we'll help you choose the right broadband for you.

Households of 1-2 people

Recommended speed: 10Mbps

If you live alone or with one other person who also uses the internet, and the most bandwidth (speed) intensive things you do online are internet shopping and browsing social media, it’s likely that your needs will be met by ADSL / standard broadband.

However, due to the low price and widespread availability of fibre, ASDL is now generally only offered to customers when there is no fibre connection available. ADSL is typically slower and less reliable than fibre broadband as it uses pre-existing BT copper phone lines to send and receive data, with a typical speed of around 10Mbps.

Although you may not need the speed it offers, an entry-level fibre connection is no more expensive than an ADSL service and is the best bet for homes with very moderate internet users.

Popular deals for 1-2 people

Households of 3-4 people

Recommended speed: 30-60Mbps

In a large household, while you may sit down and enjoy streamed movies and TV together on occasion, it’s likely that at least some of the time, you’ll be in different parts of the house doing your own thing online.

The more people that use your broadband connection at any one time, the more bandwidth (speed) you’ll need, especially if you’re streaming movies or downloading and using apps and games separately.

For a household of 3-4 people, an entry level fibre-optic broadband package is usually a sensible choice – as long as nobody owns a 4K TV and streams in 4K UHD resolution, works regularly from home, or downloads games or large documents.

This type of broadband deal will typically offer speed between 30-60Mbps. Some providers, like Virgin Media, offer much faster fibre broadband connections that go right up to 1000Mbps. Choosing a faster speed can help future-proof your broadband usage, particularly if you have growing kids who are spending more and more time online. If you or someone you live with might be switching to home working in the near future, it’s also a good idea to add a little extra broadband speed to accommodate this.

Popular deals for 3-4 people

Households of 5+ or gamers

Recommended speed: 60-1000Mbps

If you have a larger than average family or live in shared student accommodation, it’s highly likely there’ll be times each day when everyone wants to get online separately. It’s also likely that along with a range of other devices, someone in the household will stream content via an internet-ready smart TV, or a TV with a streaming box.

There may also be peak times when everyone wants to get online, usually between 4pm and 8pm when everyone has come home for the day.

In a busy household, you’ll want to make sure you have a reliable connection to avoid issues like buffering or slow-downloading games and documents, so aim for a fast fibre optic broadband deal with an average speed of at least 63Mbps.

Some fibre optic deals now offer speeds of up to 900 or 1000Mbps. Virgin Media offers full fibre on its own fibre network, and Openreach is steadily upgrading its network across the UK. This means you can now get full fibre from BT in certain areas, as well as providers like Sky, EE, TalkTalk and Vodafone who share the same network.

Serious gamers and streamers

Judging broadband speed based only on how many people are in a household doesn’t always work, as one or two people in the household may use the internet much more than the others.

The likely culprits for using more than their fair share of the broadband are serious gamers, who often need to download huge files containing new games and updates, and 4K streamers who want to watch movies and TV to their 4K television via the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube (consuming anything up to 40Mbps of your home broadband connection). Make sure you’ve allowed enough speed to stream all of your favourite shows with our guide to streaming speeds.

As a general rule, you should add an extra 30Mbps of broadband provision for each person in your household that downloads games to a console, PC, or tablet, or who streams TV shows in 4K, or make sure that your broadband deal includes an average speed of at least 100Mbps to cover all bases.

Minimum broadband speeds for streaming

Key: SD = standard definition (720p), HD = High definition (1024), UHD = Ultra high definition (4K)

Popular deals for 5+ people

What is broadband speed measured in?

Broadband speed is measured in ‘megabits’ or ‘megabits per second’, and is written as a number followed by ‘Mb’ or ‘Mbps’. It determines how fast information from the internet can be transferred to devices in your home. The higher the number of Mb or Mbps, the faster the speed.

For standard broadband, a good average speed is 11Mbps. Fibre optic broadband typically has speeds of between 30Mbps and 80Mbps, and ultrafast fibre optic can reach 1Gbps (1000Mbps).

Megabits are sometimes confused with megabytes (MB), which are used to describe both computer hard drive space and memory storage capacity, although increasingly these are now described in the larger form of gigabytes (GB).

How fast is my broadband?

A good way to find out your current broadband speed is to run a speed test while you’re at home and connected to your wifi. This will tell you the download and upload speeds you have with your existing broadband deal.

If you’re happy with these speeds, you can search for a new broadband deal that matches them. If you’re finding your broadband slow and unreliable, however, or are experiencing issues like buffering or content downloading too slowly, you may want to look for a new deal that substantially increases your broadband speed. This may mean that you also need to select a different type of broadband.

Test your broadband speed

What can affect my broadband speed?

There are a number of factors that can affect your broadband speed:

Home layout – The arrangement of your furniture, the thickness of your walls, and also nearby electronic equipment can all disrupt or weaken the wireless signal transmitted by your broadband router. If you live in a built-up area, it’s also possible that a high number of routers in close proximity will interfere with each other and slow down your broadband speed.

To give your router the best chance of achieving top speeds, it may be possible to set it to operate on a separate channel, depending on the type of router you’re using. You should also place your router close to the centre of your home, away from walls and doors and at a good height, to ensure the best signal coverage.

Multiple connected devices – The more devices that connect to your wireless broadband router at any one time, the more likely your speed will be affected. If you are simply browsing the web and reading email, the quality of your internet performance is unlikely to be heavily affected. If, however, you regularly download files, update software, and stream music or HD video, the speed will drop for everyone across the network. This can be combated somewhat by closing any programs or apps that aren’t being used.

Distance from the cabinet – If your standard or fibre optic broadband is sluggish, it could simply be that your home is situated a long distance away from the nearest cabinet where the copper or fibre optic cables are connected. It’s also possible that your standard broadband is running along very old or damaged copper wires. In this case, switching to a fibre connection will help. However, if you already have fibre and your service is slow, you may be better looking at a 4G or 5G home broadband service instead, or a full fibre service if it is available at your address.

For more information about how the distance from the exchange can impact your broadband speed, read our guide.

What if my speed is lower than expected?

If you’ve signed up for a new broadband deal and are experiencing speeds much lower than expected, get in touch with your broadband provider who should be able to help. You can refer back to the estimated speed you were given when you signed up to get an idea of the speed you should be getting.

What broadband speed can I get in my area?

Average download speeds for broadband can be affected by a number of factors. These include how far your home is from the nearest cabinet and telephone exchange, whether your standard broadband is operating along old or damaged copper wires, and what types of broadband are available in your area.

Our postcode address checker can quickly tell you what speeds and types of broadband can be accessed where you are in the UK.

Check broadband in my area

Average UK broadband speed

Finally, to get a better idea of where your chosen broadband deal sits compared to the national average, you can take a look at our annual global broadband speed audit, unique to Cable.co.uk, and taken from over a billion speed tests.

The average broadband speed in the UK was 93.63Mbps as of July 2023, putting it 34th fastest in the world from a sample of 220 countries.