The Best Internet for Streaming 2022

Whether you’re streaming movies on Netflix, jamming out to the latest hits on Spotify, or broadcasting your own livestream on Twitch, your internet speed matters.

But not all streaming is created equal—so here’s a quick guide to the recommended internet speeds for streaming. Plus, we’ll share our recommendations for internet service providers (ISPs) that should meet your streaming needs.

To find the best internet providers for streaming, we looked at the following features:

• Availability across the US
• Price for the speed you get
• Our Reviews.org weighted speed score
• Average latency for 2019

If you’re feeling limited by the number of internet choices in your area, here are a few tips to help you narrow down your search.

If you can get fiber internet where you live, go for it. Fiber is a newer technology that doesn’t suffer from the higher latency and other speed performance issues that cable and DSL have.

If fiber isn’t available near you, cable is a solid second choice. And DSL can be better than satellite—but streaming on satellite internet is still doable if you have no other choices.

Sometimes you’ll find a great deal on gig speeds, but if you don’t need 1,000 Mbps, you’re likely overpaying.

We recommend 25–50 Mbps as a baseline for streaming, but you’ll need more if you have a lot of connected devices or internet users in your home. So don’t be afraid to compare prices for 100 or even 200 Mbps internet plans.

Thanks to its symmetrical (or similar) download and upload speeds, fiber internet is a great choice if you want to start a new Twitch career or live chat with your YouTube subscribers.

Cable internet also offers decent upload speeds if you choose a plan with faster download speeds. You shouldn’t need much more than 10 Mbps—that’s what our Reviews.org YouTube team recommends.

Take a peek at these easy guides to find your internet speed sweet spot.

• How Much Internet Speed Do I Need?
• What Internet Speed Do I Need for Netflix?
• What's a Good Internet Speed for Gaming?
• How to Speed up Your Internet
• Best Internet Service Providers

Our only pain points with Xfinity are its data cap of 1.2 TB and its notoriously bad customer service. Granted, 1.2 TB is a lot of data to go through in one month, so we think most everyone will be fine with that much data.

View Plans | Read Xfinity Internet Review

CenturyLink’s DSL internet service may not be as flashy as other providers, but it comes with low prices and unlimited data for all its plans. It's also one of the few, if not the only, ISP that offers a price lock, meaning your internet bill won't automatically jump in price. 

The major downside to CenturyLink is that you might end up with subpar download speeds for streaming. Its DSL internet plans range in speed from 15 to 100 Mbps.

If you're able to connect at 50, 75, or 100 Mbps, you should be all right. But if CenturyLink only offers speeds in your area that crawl along, you might want to check elsewhere.

For a lucky few who live in cities where CenturyLink Fiber Internet is offered, it's worth a look. Fiber tends to have lower latency and faster speeds than DSL.

View Plans | Read CenturyLink Internet Review

View Plans | Read Verizon Fios Home Internet Review

At a glance, it doesn’t look like AT&T Fiber wins any races for speed performance. But we’d like to point out that that speed score and latency measurement include its DSL plans, which are no longer offered as of October 2020.

Now that AT&T has gone fully fiber, we expect to see speed scores closer to Verizon Fios Home Internet.

The awesome thing about AT&T Fiber is that you can bundle it with AT&T’s streaming service, AT&T TV NOW. (You can also bundle with DIRECTV if that’s more your jam.)

View Plans | Read AT&T Internet Review

In smaller towns where big-name providers like Xfinity can’t be found, you might be more likely to find Suddenlink. While its coverage area is smaller, it focuses on serving small towns and more rural states like West Virginia, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Suddenlink was also the fifth fastest cable internet provider in our latest internet speed report, and it maintained an average latency below 100 ms over the course of 2019. That makes it a great choice for streaming Cold Case Files on Netflix.

View Plans | Read Suddenlink Internet Review

To catch the latest Netflix Original or mind-boggling hit on HBO Max, you’ll need anywhere from 1.6 to 25 Mbps download speeds. (If you want to immerse yourself in 4K glory, you’ll need that top-end 25 Mbps speed.)

But don’t forget that’s internet speed dedicated to your streaming app. So if you’re streaming HD or 4K movies on multiple devices, you’ll want more Mbps. We recommend at least 25 Mbps. And if you have more than one person streaming in your home, we bump our recommendation up to 50 Mbps as the minimum.

With that, let's dig into each streaming service provider and their recommended speeds.

You don’t need a lot of speed for Netflix—just 3 to 5 Mbps will do to watch in SD or HD. Unless you need that 4K resolution in your life, and then you’ll need at least 25 Mbps.

Want more Netflix streaming secrets? We don’t share these with just anyone. OK, maybe we do, but our Netflix guide is well worth a look.

Hulu’s requirements are pretty much the same as Netflix’s: you’ll need 3 Mbps to watch anything in the streaming library and at least 8 Mbps to watch Hulu + Live TV.

And if you’re all about blasting your retinas with glorious 4K resolution, well, you’ll need at least 16 Mbps.

Wanna know if Hulu is worth it? Check out our expert Hulu review.

You’ll need 5 Mbps to stream Disney+ in HD and sing along with all your favorite songs. And for those 4K Disney shows with all their phenomenal cosmic power, you should be as golden as Rapunzel’s hair if you have at least 25 Mbps.

Find out if Disney+ has all the bare necessities in our full-length review.

You’ll need speeds of 3 Mbps or better to get your dose of snarkiness with Schitt’s Creek on YouTube TV. Make that 13 Mbps or better if you need to watch the Rose family’s latest meltdown in HD.

We’ve got more reasons why YouTube TV is a solid streaming choice in our full YouTube TV review.

Want to live that ultra-high-definition life? You’ll need at least 25 Mbps to watch the Baudelaire orphans outsmart the wily Count Olaf in A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix in full 4K glory.

Because no one likes that smug little buffering icon. Not even Count Olaf.

You’ll only need 1–10 Mbps as a starting point for streaming the latest Ariana Grande hit. But keep in mind that you’ll want more download speed as a buffer. You know, so you can watch YouTube, play video games, and use your smart thermostat while you jam out.

We aim for at least 25 Mbps. Luckily, lower-speed plans like this don’t usually cost a lot. Even better, you can opt for an ISP like CenturyLink, where you sacrifice a little bit of performance for an unlimited data plan, which is great for those who like to listen to music as they work. Other ISPs such as Xfinity have a 1.2 TB data cap, which is unfortunate as you use about 1 GB of data after streaming music for your entire 8-hour work-day.

You’ll need download speeds of at least 4 Mbps and upload speeds of 1.8 to 6 Mbps to livestream on Twitch or YouTube. But we recommend a download speed of at least 25 Mbps and an upload speed of at least 10 Mbps because even Ninja, sodapoppin, and Asmongold need a buffer to keep all their connected devices online while they stream.

Streaming on Twitch requires at least 4 Mbps download speeds and anywhere from 3 to 6 Mbps upload speeds.

The speeds you need depend on what quality you aim for with your livestream. We mainly looked at resolution and framerate for GPU encoding (NVIDIA NVENC) here, but you’ll also want to consider keyframe intervals and more.

If you’re starting out, you should check out Twitch’s recommendations for your setup.

Also, we know the FCC recommends a download speed of only 4 Mbps for online gaming,13 but that’s not going to cut it for most multiplayer games. So play it safe and assume you’ll need a faster connection.

Those of us who geek out over computer hardware love our acronyms, so sometimes it’s like we’re speaking another language. Here’s a quick hit tip on what GPU and NVIDIA NVENC are:

GPU: This is your graphics card, or “graphics processing unit.”

NVIDIA NVENC: This is a feature of NVIDIA’s graphics cards that allows the GPU to handle the encoding—meaning, it lets the GPU convert your livestream into a video file. Traditionally, this was handled by your processor (CPU), which could cause performance issues if you were playing a game at the same time.

To hop on a live stream with YouTube, you’ll need at least 13 Mbps download speeds and anywhere from 1.5 to 18 Mbps upload speeds. (Bump those upload speeds up to 13 to 51 Mbps if you want to stream in 4K.)

Pop quiz: what internet speed do you need for streaming? Don’t worry, we’ve got your cheat sheet here.

• Video: Look for speeds of at least 3–10 Mbps for Netflix, Huly, Disney+, and YouTube TV.
• Ultra HD/4K: You’ll want at least 25 Mbps.
• Music: A little goes a long way, so 5 Mbps is likely enough. But go for 10+ Mbps if you stream on TIDAL or Deezer.
• Livestreaming: Upload speeds matter—look for 10–50 Mbps upload speeds and download speeds of at least 13 Mbps to host a live stream on Twitch or YouTube.

Want to be sure your internet provider can keep up with your binge watching? These are the ISPs we recommend.

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