What’s a Good Internet Speed for Work From Home?

During the 2020 quarantine, many employers offered the option of hybrid or remote-first work. We saw a big shift in the workforce from the cubicle to the home office, which was chock-full of houseplants, motivational wall decor, and kitschy coffee mugs. In the years following Zoom meetings as the new norm, increasingly more job opportunities afforded full-time salaries for work-from-home employees. 

In this new world of remote work, an internet download speed of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) is recommended for someone who works from home. But if you're running a lot of programs, video conferencing, and sharing large files while your family members stream music, YouTube videos, and Netflix, then you're going to need high-speed broadband internet that can accommodate your home needs. 

How much internet speed is required to work from home isn’t an exact science. It depends on what you use the internet for, and if you have satellite internet or use a VPN (although the best VPNs maintain fast speeds), you might have more speed concerns. Here’s what you should know.

What’s a good internet speed for working from home?

The reality of an internet plan without enough speed is much like a two-lane highway with way too many people driving to the shopping outlet simultaneously.

Before you upgrade your existing internet service, you should consider several factors:

• Use testing tools like Speedtest.net to see your current internet speed.
• Count how many people use the internet in your house (don't forget neighbors who "borrow" your internet or visitors who love mobile games).
• Determine how often everyone in the house uses the internet.
• Determine what each person uses the internet for.

Don’t forget to consider online activities, including:

• Shopping
• Web browsing
• Online gaming
• Video conferencing
• Email and social media
• Streaming video and music
• Connected devices like home security cameras

A virtual private network can also affect your internet speed because your internet traffic is routed through secure servers. Even still, some premium VPNs offer faster speeds by encrypting your activities (so your ISP data cap is none the wiser) or bypassing ISP throttling. 

• Surfshark: Surfshark VPN had low latency in our testing and maintains fast upload and download speeds. It’s also affordable and offers features like an ad blocker and antivirus software. But Surfshark shines for more than offering a premium service at a budget price. This VPN supports unlimited simultaneous connections, so everyone can use the service with no problem. 

  Get Surfshark VPN | Read our Surfshark VPN review

• CyberGhost: CyberGhost is almost as fast as Surfshark and has excellent security features, including an audited no-logs policy. Plus, it's one of the cheapest premium VPNs that doesn't skimp on quality. This service includes optimized servers for streaming and torrenting but only supports up to seven devices.

  Get CyberGhost | Read our CyberGhost review

• ExpressVPN: ExpressVPN uses the Lightway protocol and is known for maintaining lightning-fast internet speeds. However, this service comes with a premium price tag, and it only supports up to eight devices.

  Get ExpressVPN | Read our ExpressVPN review

Once you understand how your family uses the internet, you should map the speed requirements for each activity. Below is a chart that should give you an idea of how much internet speed is needed for everyday online activities. 

Work-from-home activity	Minimum download speed	Recommended download speed
Sending emails and browsing	1 Mbps	10 Mbps
Video calls (Zoom)	1.0 Mbps	5 Mbps
Downloading large files	10 Mbps	25 Mbps
Streaming video	3 Mbps	25 Mbps

Don’t forget to account for family members who may be streaming Disney+, remote learning, or gaming, as well as your needs for Zoom calls, emailing, and Slack.

For example, you could need enough internet speed for the following situation:

• Four household members
• Email and web surfing: 10 Mbps per member
• Zoom calls: 3 Mbps per call
• Video streaming: 15 Mbps per streaming device

That means your internet speed needs would reach about 88 Mbps:

• Four people x 10 Mbps = 40 Mbps
• One Zoom call x 3 Mbps = 3 Mbps
• Three streaming devices x 15 Mbps = 45 Mbps
• Total: 88 Mbps (we’d recommend 100 Mbps to play it safe)

Understanding latency and time of day connections

Even with the advertised internet speed you’re paying for, often you might see slower speeds in your test results. You might also see the dreaded lag, or a delay between activities. That means you have high latency. 

Going back to the highway analogy, if too many people are racing the outlet for sales, everyone gets delayed due to congestion. Slow internet could also be caused by congestion or too many people trying to get online at the same time.

The result is the annoying spinning wheel on the screen.

Knowing that network congestion happens, how do you plan to get the proper internet speed to support your needs? Predicting when internet congestion happens is never an exact science. Slow internet could be caused by something within your home, such as an old router, or possibly your internet service provider (ISP) or neighborhood’s network.

Running internet speed tests throughout the day is a good way to see changes in your speeds. Conducting speed tests can help you get an idea of the least-congested time of day for your home and neighborhood.

How much internet speed do you need for video calls?

If you work remotely, Zoom, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, and Skype are critical tools. The internet speed to host and connect to video chats without impacting the rest of the household is also critical.

Using Zoom as an example, here are the recommended internet speeds for video calls:

• For 1:1 video calls: 600 Kbps-3 Mbps
• For group video calls: 600 Kbps-4 Mbps
• For screen sharing without video thumbnail: 50-75 Kbps
• For screen sharing with video thumbnail: 50-150 Kbps

How much internet speed do you need to send emails and browse the web?

Setting aside the usual work-from-home apps, such as Zoom and Slack, how much bandwidth is needed for just email and web surfing?

Because most emails are still very much text only with attachments and the majority of commonly used websites, such as bank and travel sites, are optimized for speed, we recommend 10 Mbps as a minimum for sending emails and web browsing.

How much internet speed do you need to download large files?

The time it takes to download files can be very quick or tremendously slow. Here’s a chart showing estimated download times based on the file size and download speed. Adding latency (congestion) into the mix, these times will vary.

File type	5 Mbps download speed	25 Mbps download speed	100 Mbps download speed	1,000 Mbps download speed
High-res image (8 MB)	12.8 seconds	2.6 seconds	0.6 seconds	0.06 seconds
High-res image (25 MB)	40 seconds	8 seconds	2 seconds	.2 seconds
Multiple project files (100 MB)	160 seconds	32 seconds	8 seconds	.8 seconds
Large video (10 GB)	16,000 seconds	3,200 seconds	800 seconds	80 seconds

How much internet speed do you need to stream a video?

With the adoption of 4K HD programming to watch on the latest and greatest 77-inch flat-screen TVs on sale at Costco, the need for enough internet speed becomes even greater. The recommended speed for catching your favorite shows on all the streaming services falls into the following ranges:

• Standard definition (SD): 3-4 Mbps
• High definition (HD): 5-8 Mbps
• Ultra HD 4K: 15-25 Mbps

Let’s say your household has Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV streaming in 4K simultaneously, you’d need 25 Mbps times three = 75 Mbps just for video streaming.

What should you do if your internet isn’t fast enough to work from home?

Managing your internet speed can be very challenging. With new devices and new activities like video conferencing, 4K streaming, and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls, your needs can fluctuate. Here are some suggestions to help manage your work-from-home network:

• Set up parental controls on your home router to set times when people can access the internet.
• Use the media prioritization or Quality of service (QoS) function. This allows the router to give higher priority to specific types of traffic, including video streaming and gaming.
• Swap from Wi-Fi to an Ethernet cable. Interference can affect Wi-Fi signals, slowing down your connection.
• Put your router in your home office or nearby. Or, if you can’t move your router closer, invest in a Wi-Fi extender or booster.
• Check if someone in your home is hogging bandwidth. Typical culprits could include downloading files, online gaming, or video streaming.
• Change to a different internet service provider (ISP). If yours isn’t delivering on the speeds it promises, it’s worth looking around for faster internet. (And maybe a better deal.)
• Turn off your virtual private network (VPN). A VPN can and likely will slow your internet speeds at least by a little bit. If it’s getting in the way of your work and you don’t need your connection encrypted, turn the VPN off and see if your speeds improve.

Using these controls can help prioritize specific services and household members who need access during particular hours of the day.

FAQs

Bottom line

Figuring out the right internet speed for working from home can be difficult. Before you upgrade your plan, it’s essential to know how much speed you need based on your activities.

Yes, having a 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) plan is fantastic, but what if you’re only surfing the web, accessing email, and streaming in SD? Your internet speed needs would be less than 25 Mbps or so, but you’d be paying a pretty penny for more speed than you need. 

If you use a VPN and it's affecting your speeds, check out the fastest VPNs.