Interactive tool

Internet Speed Tier Finder

Free tool to find the right broadband speed tier for your household based on activity needs (streaming, gaming, work-from-home, file downloads).

Current FCC floor
100/20 Mbps
Gigabit-capable
24.6%
Below 25 Mbps
21.8%

How common is each speed tier nationally?

The share of all U.S. FCC Form 477 deployment records at each max-advertised-download tier — context for where your target tier sits across the federal record.

Federal broadband speed-tier distribution Horizontal bar showing the share of 60,659,227 FCC Form 477 deployment filings across the five federal speed-threshold bands. 21.8% <3/0.768 15.8% 3/0.768 → 25/3 37.9% 25/3 → 100/20 20.1% 100/20 → 1G ≥1G/100 Sub-broadband 13,194,839 Legacy 9,585,183 Standard 22,969,412 Giga-capable 12,177,120 Gigabit+ 2,732,673 60,659,227 filings · 5 federal speed-threshold bands
U.S. broadband deployment records by max advertised download tier (FCC Form 477, June 2020)
Activities you do simultaneously

FCC speed-tier reference

  • 25/3 Mbps — Old FCC broadband definition. Adequate for 1-2 users with light streaming.
  • 100/20 Mbps — Current FCC broadband floor (March 2024). Sufficient for typical 2-3 person households with moderate streaming.
  • 300+ Mbps — Comfortable for 4+ users with heavy 4K streaming and gaming.
  • 1 Gbps+ — Power users, content creators, multiple 4K streams + simultaneous large downloads.

Why 30% safety margin

Real-world ISP throughput rarely matches advertised speeds. Network congestion, modem/router limits, and Wi-Fi overhead typically reduce effective bandwidth by 20-40%. The 30% margin accounts for this gap so you don't end up under-provisioned. Read more about Mbps vs MBps and why ISP "up to" speeds matter.

Source & methodology

Bandwidth requirements per activity from FCC Measuring Broadband America Reports, Cisco Bandwidth Calculator, and Netflix/YouTube official streaming requirements. FCC speed tiers from the 2024 Section 706 Broadband Progress Report.