How Much Internet Speed You Need To Work From Home

Do you have the speed you need to work from home?

Find out how much speed you’re getting on your current internet connection so you can decide whether it’s time to upgrade.

How much internet speed you need for Zoom and other video conferencing applications

Video calls require you to send and receive real-time video simultaneously, so there are a few internet speed factors you should keep in mind to get the most out of your remote meetings: download speed, upload speed, and latency.

Here’s more on each:

• Download speed affects how well your connection receives video from other people on the call.
• Upload speed affects how well your connection can send your video stream to others.
• Latency affects how well your connections synchronize with each other, and high latency can distort calls and cause lag.

Most video conferencing applications work best with less than 150 ms of latency. You can’t control your connection’s latency as directly as you can improve your speed by upgrading, but lower latency is better. Moreover, certain types of internet connections (like fiber) tend to have lower latency than others (like satellite internet).

Video calling apps don’t require very much speed. Most households with an internet connection can manage at least the minimum requirements. That’s great because it means we can all stay connected.

If you run into issues, your upload speed is the most likely culprit. Cable and DSL internet providers give customers much less upload speed than download. So even if your download speed is safely in the clear for video calls, your upload speed might not be up to par for big group calls. Turn off your video or switch to a wired connection for better results.

How much internet speed you need for email and chat applications

You need only about 1Mbps of download speed per instance for chat and email. 

However, you may need more bandwidth when you share photos or videos in conversations and when you download larger assets (like images and attachments) from emails.

Thankfully, you can carry on with your chat and email conversations while you work on other projects without worrying about internet interruptions. That’s because the chat functions of Microsoft Teams, Facebook Messenger, Slack, and similar applications usually don’t use a lot of bandwidth.

How much internet speed you need for web browsing

We recommend about 5Mbps of download speed for heavy web browsing and jumping between sites.

Browsing the internet doesn’t take too much data unless you visit pages with a lot of uncompressed images or video content. If you’re scrolling through social media, we suggest slightly higher speeds than our general recommendation, especially if you have video autoplay enabled. 

The average web page uses about 3MB (megabytes) of data. That translates to 24Mb (megabits) because there are eight bits in one byte. So if you want a whole web page to load within a second, 24Mbps of download speed would be great. 

You don’t always need to load all assets on a web page to start getting to the content you want, and loading a web page doesn’t take a continuous stream of data—you just download the content once, and that’s all you need as long as you keep that web page in your browser’s cache.

How much internet speed you need for streaming

We recommend 5Mbps of download speed at a minimum per person for streaming media.

If you stream music or have a show streaming in the background while you work (or someone else in your house is binge-watching all of The Boys on Prime Video), make sure to factor that into how much bandwidth you need to work from home effectively. This is especially important for video services like YouTube or Netflix because video can be a bit of a bandwidth hog.

If you want to use YouTube or a streaming service like Netflix while working from home but run into bandwidth issues like buffering, check your video quality settings. YouTube videos can run on as little as 0.7Mbps at 360p, but they can use up to 20Mbps if you’re watching in 4K.

Similarly, standard-definition Netflix can work with as little as 0.5Mbps, but Netflix in 4K uses up to 25Mbps. And if you’re using it only as background noise, you don’t need 4K.

Fortunately, most video apps can automatically detect your bandwidth availability and adjust resolution on the fly.

How much internet speed you need for sharing large files

We recommend at least 10Mbps of download and upload speeds for sharing large files.

For jobs that necessitate a large amount of file sharing, the faster your internet is, the better. That’s not to say you absolutely need fast internet speeds to download and upload large files, but it makes things go much faster and more smoothly.

Here are a few examples of how long it would take to transfer various sizes of files using common internet speeds.

What else affects how much speed you need to work from home?

What to do if your internet speeds aren’t fast enough

If you’re running into problems with your internet connection and slow speeds are to blame, the first thing you should do is run a wired speed test from your modem or ONT to rule out your internet connection. If it’s slower than advertised, contact your internet provider.

If your actual internet speed isn’t an issue, connect your work device to the router using an Ethernet cable and recheck your speeds. You shouldn’t see a major difference, but if you do, you may need a replacement. We have dozens of upgrade suggestions based on routers we’ve tested and reviewed.

But if your work device’s wired connection to the router checks out, try the following to alleviate your speed woes:

• Reposition the router to a better location
• Limit nonessential internet traffic during work hours
• Get a Wi-Fi extender and place it close to your work area
• Add another satellite if you have a mesh system
• Make sure each external is vertical if your router only covers one floor

FAQ about internet speed needs for working remotely