what is gbps internet speed?

* Regional price differences may apply. No contract required. 24 Month Internet Pricing. Equipment priced separately. Includes $5 discount for 12 months w/ ebill & autopay. Observed speeds may vary. Excludes surcharges and fees. New residential customers only.

† Regional price differences may apply. 24 Month Internet Pricing. No contract required. Equipment priced separately. Includes $5 discount for 12 months w/ ebill & autopay. Experienced speeds may vary. New residential customers only.

‡ Regional price differences may apply.  for 12 months w/ ebill & autopay. Experienced speeds may vary. New residential customers only.

# Price after $5/mo Autopay & Paperless bill discount (w/in 2 bills). Plus taxes & fees. Internet speed claims represent maximum network service capability speeds and based on wired connection to gateway. 1GIG speeds avail. to new customers with the latest router (“BGW320”) and recommended setup. Actual customer speeds may vary based on a number of factros and are not guaranteed.

** Price after $5/mo Autopay & Paperless bill discount (w/in 2 bills). Plus taxes & fees. Internet speed claims represent maximum network service capability speeds and based on wired connection to gateway. Actual customer speeds may vary based on a number of factros and are not guaranteed.

†† Price after $5/mo Autopay & Paperless bill discount (w/in 2 bills). Plus taxes & fees. Internet speed claims represent maximum network service capability speeds and based on wired connection to gateway. Actual customer speeds may vary based on a number of factros and are not guaranteed. For 5GIG speed, single device wired speed maximum 4.7Gbps. For more information, go to www.att.com/speed101.

‡‡ Speed may not be available in your area. Maximum download/upload speed of up to 940 Mbps via a wired connection. Paperless billing required. Taxes and fees apply. Offer details. Offer includes professional installation at customer’s eligible location.

§§ for 12 months with 1-yr. term agreement

|||| with a 12 month contract.

## w/ Auto Pay & Paperless Bill. Max wired speed 1000/1000 Mbps. Location dependent. Wi-Fi, actual & average speeds vary. One-time charges apply. In select areas where available.

***w/ Auto Pay & Paperless Bill. Max wired speed 2000/2000 Mbps. Wi-Fi, actual & average speeds vary. One-time charges apply. In select areas where available.

###w/ Auto Pay & Paperless Bill. Max wired speed 5000/5000. Wi-Fi, actual & average speeds vary. One-time charges apply. In select areas where available.

††† Terms and Conditions: Plus taxes and fees. Service not available in all areas. If you live in an apartment or condo, Google Fiber’s ability to construct and provide Fiber is subject to the continued agreement between Google Fiber and the property owner. Upload/download speed and device streaming claims are based on maximum wired speeds. Actual Internet speeds are not guaranteed and may vary based on factors such as hardware and software limitations, latency, packet loss, etc

‡‡‡w/ Auto Pay. Available in select areas.

#####Available in select areas only. Price per month with Auto Pay & without select 5G mobile plans. Fios plan prices include taxes & fees.

§§§ Offers available to new residential customers only and may not be combined with other offers. MetroNet reserves the right to revoke or modify offers at any time. Taxes, fees, and other terms apply.

|||||| w/Auto Pay & Paperless Bill plus taxes. Terms apply. Not available in all areas.

### After 5TB of data usage, speed may be slowed for network management.

**** $10 charge for each add’l 100GB; Up to $50/mo.

†††† Limited time offer; subject to change; valid to qualified residential customers who have not subscribed to any services within the previous 30 days and who have no outstanding obligation to Charter. Spectrum Internet® Gig promotion price is $89.99/mo; standard rates apply after yr. 1. Taxes, fees and surcharges extra and subject to change during and after the promotional period; installation/network activation, equipment and additional services are extra.

‡‡‡‡ w/Auto Pay & Paperless Bill plus taxes & equip. charges. Terms apply. Not available in all areas.

|||||||| For the first 12 months. No data caps. No overage charges. 30 day money back guarantee.

******With autopay for 12 months. Limited-time, non-transferable offer for residential customers that may not be combined with other promotions. Credit restrictions may apply. Subject to availability.

#### With enrollment in AutoPay & paperless billing. Equipment & speed availability vary by area. $10 off for 12 months on regular rate of $74.99.

***** For the first 12 months with a 1-year agreement. Taxes and equipment not included. Regional price differences may apply.

††††† With a 2-year agreement.

Mbps and Gbps stand for megabits per second and gigabits per second, respectively. Mbps is the standard way to measure internet speed. The higher the number of megabits per second, the faster the data transfer rate, which determines how fast your internet will feel. One Gbps is equal to 1,000 Mbps and is commonly referred to as gigabit speed.

When you’re shopping for an internet plan, you’ll have to compare plans based on their connection speed. The plan tiers offered by internet service providers are primarily differentiated based on their download speeds, but upload speeds are also an important factor to consider.

Download speed is what affects how fast websites and videos load. That’s why having a high enough download speed to accommodate the needs of everyone in your home is key for avoiding a frustrating experience with your home internet. The more devices and people in your home, the more internet speed you will need. You’ll also need more speed if you do a lot of high-bandwidth activities like video calls or streaming movies or shows in high definition.

Upload speed will typically be lower than download speed, with the exception of fiber internet, which has symmetrical speeds. Upload speed is often treated as secondary to download speed since people don’t upload nearly as much data as they download. Nevertheless, having a high enough upload speed is important for people who have to do video calls or upload large files.

Different types of internet connections have different maximum speeds. You can find fiber plans that reach up to 10 Gbps (10,000 Mbps) download speed, while standard cable internet typically reaches gigabit speed (1,000 Mbps), though 1,200 Mbps (1.2 Gbps) speeds are becoming more common. Meanwhile, DSL plans usually top out at a relatively slower 100 Mbps.

For an internet connection to be considered broadband speed, it must have at least 25 Mbps download speed and 3 Mbps upload speed. This is considered the minimum for home internet, and it isn’t fast enough for most users.

Here’s a quick overview of what you can do with different internet speeds:

Check out our full guide to figuring out how much speed your household needs for more.

MB and GB are short for megabyte and gigabyte. Both are used to measure amounts of data. You’ll commonly see things like file size, storage capacity, and data limits expressed as MB or GB. Gigabytes are the larger of the two, and there are 1,024 megabytes in a gigabyte. Similarly, there are 1,024 gigabytes in a terabyte (TB).

Some internet plans have unlimited data, while others have limits on the amount of data you can use per month. If you’re considering a plan with a data limit, it’s important to know how much data your family is likely to use per month. If you exceed your data limit, your internet provider may lower your speed significantly or charge overage fees.

Data limits vary widely. Some cable providers have a data cap of over 1 TB, which is high enough that most families won’t have to worry about it. Satellite internet providers, on the other hand, tend to have very low data caps (under 300 GB), which would be a real issue for most.

It may surprise you how much data common activities use. For reference, streaming Netflix with standard definition quality for an hour uses up to 1 GB of data, and group video calls can use even more than that. Online gaming and music streaming use around 100 MB per hour. Downloading some newer games can use over 100 GB, and software updates can be hefty as well.

Now that you know all about how speed and data are measured, you can shop for internet plans with confidence. See what internet plans are available in your area with the amount of speed you need.

Gigabit Internet service transmits data up to 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) — or 1,000 megabits per second (Mbps).

Simply put, internet speeds in the 100–200 Mbps range are ideal for most households since they can handle common activities like streaming and video chat for two to five users at once. However, several factors should also be considered — especially for home offices and gaming where upload capacity for files and reaction times are particularly important.

Along with upload speeds, latency, and your location, another factor to consider is your Wi-Fi network. The average Wi-Fi speed you experience around your home will generally be anywhere from 20–50 percent below the advertised download speed due to wireless interference and fade as you move further from the router. With that said, it’s important to choose a speed slightly faster than what you need to account for network slowdowns.

While each household will have their own definition of what a good internet speed is based on their needs, here are a few simple guidelines on different speeds and what they can handle:

To get a quick recommendation based on the number of users and devices in your home, take a look at our bandwidth calculation tool. If you already have Wi-Fi and are having slower-than-normal speeds, try troubleshooting your Wi-Fi, or consider learning how to extend your Wi-Fi network.

In this article, we help you determine how much internet speed you need based on how many internet users are in your home and how they use the internet.

Any internet connection above 25 Mbps is a good internet speed. The FCC currently defines a “broadband” internet connection as one that provides at least 25 Mbps for download speed and 3 Mbps for upload. This is a decent benchmark for the average family of three; however, larger households of three to five people should consider speeds closer to the 100–200 Mbps range.

In order to be a “good” internet speed, the connection has to meet the needs of the household, which will vary based on number of devices connected and how many people use the connection at once.

The experience using an internet connection depends on several factors:

As you can see, good internet speed can mean something different for every household. For instance, if you’re using your home Wi-Fi for only web browsing and email, you might feel that you have fast internet with only 10 Mbps.

On the other hand, someone who streams 4K video on multiple devices, plays video games online, and has smart home IoT devices, may not be satisfied with even 100 Mbps. They should look at fiber options like those offered by AT&T Fiber internet or Frontier Communications FiberOptic which offers higher uploads speeds than other common connections like cable and DSL.

It’s worth mentioning that the range of performance you can get is somewhat relative to your location. Rural areas in states like California and even New York often have much lower speeds (around 25 Mbps) and fewer options, when compared to urban centers within the state which typically have 100+ Mbps plans available, such as Los Angeles, San Diego, or Brooklyn.

By most definitions, anything above 100 Mbps is considered “fast.” Once you start getting close to 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps), the internet plan is called a “gigabit” service.

If you’re wondering why anyone would ever need a 1 Gbps or higher download or upload speed, the answer is pretty simple: most of us don’t (though that may change in the future). That said, these sorts of speeds may be worth it for techies, gamers, streamers, and large households.

If you don’t know the difference between upload and download speeds, here is a simple breakdown:

When you see the advertised speed of an internet plan, what you usually see is the download speed. The upload speed isn’t visible at first, or it appears in a much smaller size at the bottom.

Download speed is much more important for the average user since you only notice upload speed when trying to share large files. It’s normal for your upload speed to be around one tenth your download speed. However, fiber internet users often have symmetrical (or identical) download and upload speeds.

A 25 Mbps plan can be referred to as the “Goldilocks” of internet plans. It’s neither too fast nor too slow. For a small household of light internet users, you won’t suffer from frustrating lag or pay for bandwidth that you don’t need.

Here are some things you can expect from 25 Mbps:

So, is 25 Mbps fast?

For a small household that isn’t doing intense streaming on multiple devices or gaming at high-resolution, 25 Mbps is relatively fast. For larger households or for internet users that need 4K resolution, 25 Mbps may still not be enough. The biggest factor here will be the number of devices being used at a time. Almost any household can get away with 25 Mbps as long as the number of users/devices online at a time is limited. For example, three to four people can stream in HD with a 25 Mbps connection, but anyone else trying to get online will likely experience a slow connection.

Basic streaming doesn’t require very much bandwidth. However, when you start to stream in 4K resolution or stream on many devices at once, you will need a much larger internet package.

In general, streaming videos on platforms such as Netflix or YouTube TV requires 3-5 Mbps to stream in HD.

If you want to stream in 4K Ultra HD, you will need a minimum of 25 Mbps. However, streaming even one video in 4K HD may use up all of your available bandwidth. For that reason, if you like HD video and you have more than one device connected at a time, we recommend a speed of 50 Mbps or more.

For instance, say you have a 25 Mbps down connection speed. If the total capacity of your internet connection was a pie, each device on the network gets a “slice.”

Your total potential speed is split across all of the devices connected to the network. So, a 25 Mbps plan may only be providing 10-15 Mbps on Netflix — depending on how many devices are taking a “slice.”

Also, using Wi-Fi will always be slower than a hardwired connection. Trying to stream over Wi-Fi can produce less-than-stellar results.

Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to ensure that you’re maximizing your chances of a trouble-free streaming experience:

Use our bandwidth calculator to get an estimate of the speed you actually need to stream on multiple devices at home.

Online gaming is one of the few activities that require a fast upload speed. This is because the actions that you perform in-game are uploaded to a server for other players to view and interact with.

Minimum internet speed requirements for gaming are usually 4-8 Mbps if nobody else in the house is using up your bandwidth. Unfortunately, slower internet plans such as these may not give you the upload speed you need for a consistently good experience.

If you’re the only one at home, a 25 Mbps internet plan is recommended for smooth gaming. However, speed isn’t the only thing that matters in gaming: ping and latency play a role as well.

Latency is a measurement of the amount of time it takes for data to be transmitted from one point to another. Ping is often used interchangeably to describe this, but in fact, a “ping” is simply the act of hailing a certain receiver. Under this definition, latency is a measurement of how quickly you can “ping” the server you are trying to reach.

So, is latency a real concern when deciding which service provider to choose from?

Honestly, the majority of users will likely not be impacted by latency. Latency is more of an issue for satellite internet users as it takes longer for data to travel and is more susceptible to interference than wired internet connections (i.e. cable, DSL, and fiber). Competitive gamers serious about getting the best connection will definitely want to look into minimizing this number by either upgrading to a cable or fiber internet connection or connecting their gaming device directly to their modem/router.

You may notice a certain company offering fast speeds in the subdivision adjacent yours — only to search your internet options and find they can’t provide the same speed for your street. This can be frustrating.

Regardless of which type of service you’re interested in, your physical connection has to go somewhere central before it can move on to the wider network that forms the backbone of the internet. For DSL and cable, this central location is the provider’s office or joining node, and for fiber, a central switch.

No matter the specifics, the physical distance between your home and these meeting points can have an impact on the speed of service a particular company is able to offer. Remember, though — just because one provider can only offer a certain speed, that doesn’t necessarily mean all of them are limited in the same way.

If you live in an area where there are several services to choose from, check the speeds offered by other ISPs in your area before setting an install date.

If you already have existing service but aren’t sure how fast it actually is, you can find out using our speed test tool.

Essentially, this service works by sending test samples of data to various remote servers, the same way you would when browsing the web.

We then display the average upload and download speeds of those individual pieces of data, allowing you to get a good idea of what you’re working with.