Broadband Speed & Data Usage Calculator
Calculate the broadband speed your household needs and how long any download or upload takes at your current speed.
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Broadband Speed Guide
What's the key thing to understand about Bandwidth Requirements?
Bandwidth required by activity: 4K streaming (Netflix UHD): 25 Mbps per stream. HD streaming (1080p): 5-8 Mbps per stream. SD streaming (720p): 3-4 Mbps. Video call HD (Zoom, Teams): 3.8 Mbps per call. Online gaming: 10-30 Mbps (latency matters more than speed). Browsing/email: 1-3 Mbps. Smart home devices: 1-3 Mbps total. Total for an average UK household (2-3 people, 1-2 streams, some gaming): 30-50 Mbps is comfortable. For 4+ people with 4K streaming: 100+ Mbps recommended.
What should I know about Broadband Technologies?
ADSL (copper telephone line): up to 24 Mbps download. Average real-world: 10-17 Mbps. Being phased out. FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet — superfast): 30-80 Mbps typical. Uses fibre to street cabinet, copper to home. Most common type. FTTP / Full Fibre (Fibre to the Premises): 100-900+ Mbps. Fibre all the way to the home. Most reliable. Increasingly available (Openreach, Virgin Media, CityFibre). Cable (Virgin Media): 100-1100+ Mbps. Coaxial cable infrastructure. 5G home broadband: 50-300+ Mbps using mobile network infrastructure instead of a fixed cable, a genuine option in areas without fibre but dependent on local mobile signal strength.
What do I need to know about Download Times?
Converting file size to download time: time = file_size_GB × 8000 / speed_Mbps / 60 (in minutes). 1GB = 8,000 megabits. Common download sizes: Netflix HD episode (1hr): approximately 3 GB. 4K episode: approximately 7 GB. PlayStation game: 50-100 GB. Windows 11 update: 5-20 GB. 4K Blu-ray quality file: 50-80 GB. At 67 Mbps: 50 GB download = 50 × 8000 / 67 / 60 = 99.5 minutes ≈ 1 hour 40 min. At 1 Gbps full fibre: same download in 6.7 minutes. Peak time contention: advertised speeds are an 'up to' maximum, and actual speeds vary — particularly in the evening when many households in the same area are online simultaneously.
What should I know about Data Caps and Unlimited?
Most UK broadband packages are now 'unlimited' — but check the fair use policy. Some unlimited packages throttle speeds after 100-500 GB of high-usage. Who needs to watch data: mobile broadband (4G/5G dongles and home routers) often have strict data caps — 100GB, 200GB, or truly unlimited. At 4K streaming: Netflix 4K uses approximately 7 GB/hour. 4 hours/day × 30 days = 840 GB/month just for one 4K stream. Most FTTP home broadband packages: genuinely unlimited with no throttling. Routers: the router itself can be a bottleneck on older equipment, even when the incoming broadband speed is fast — check the router supports the full speed of your package.