Buying an internet plan used to be easy. But with the introduction of the NBN, along with the rise of 4G and 5G home internet plans, the speed of your connection now plays an important role in which plan you choose. And with so many speed choices on offer, you may be wondering what qualifies as a "good" internet speed.
In this guide, we'll cover exactly what Australians might consider a good internet speed, how to choose the right speed for you, as well as speeds you can expect on every major internet technology type.
What is a good internet speed?
A good internet speed is around 50Mbps. On the Australian market, these speeds most widely available on NBN 50 plans. An NBN 50 plan will allow a household of 3-4 people to be on the internet all at the same time, streaming Netflix, browsing social media, uploading emails, etc.
Just be aware that 50Mbps is the max speed promised by an NBN 50 plan. During peak periods when many other households are also using the internet, speeds may be slower. However, many NBN providers these days are promising NBN that is congesion-free or close to it. Here are the NBN 50 plans in our database promising the fastest speeds during peak periods:
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You don't have to live with a slow NBN connection. Here are the reasons why your NBN may be slow, and some fixes to speed up your broadband. View our guide.
Internet speed is measured in Megabits per second (Mbps). And it's a little known fact that you don't actually need many Mbps for most of what you do online.
Browsing the web, for example, may require only 1-2Mbps. Streaming video in SD may require only 3Mbps, while streaming in HD may require only 5Mbps. To stream video in 4K quality, you'll need about 25Mbps. And downloading a large file will take up pretty much all the capacity that's available.
When choosing an internet speed, it's far more important to consider how many people will be using your connection, as well as what they'll be doing. That's because internet speed is a shared resource.
If you subscribe to a plan with a max speed of 50Mbps, for example, that 50Mbps is shared between every person and device in your household. If one person is streaming a movie on Netflix, the internet will be slower for everyone else using your connection at the same time. Faster speeds mean there's more capacity to share: you can stream all the video you want and no one else in your home will notice any slow-down.
As a rule of thumb, these are the NBN speed tiers you'd need for the following households:
Of course, the best internet speed for your household may not always be the one that's available. Internet speed is often determined by the type of technology available for you to connect, as well as other factors like congestion and home equipment.
Speed test your internet
- Not satisfied with the speed you're getting from your current plan?
- Not sure what speed tier you're currently on?
- It might be worth taking an internet speed test.
- See what speeds you're currently getting, and compare them to our household recommendations, to work out whether you need to upgrade.
How fast is the NBN?
As mentioned above, when signing up for an NBN plan you have a choice between plans capable of achieving download speeds of up to:
- 12Mbp
- 25Mbps
- 50Mbps
- 100Mbps
- 250Mbps
- 1000Mbps
Plans with speeds of 50Mbps tend to be the best value for most households given the fast speeds and affordable pricing of plans.
Speeds of 250Mbps+ are super fast and well suited to businesses or households with more than six people, but they're not available to everyone. Only FTTP and HFC customers can sign up for these plans. All FTTP customers can get NBN 250 and NBN 1000, all HFC customers can get NBN 250, and about 95% can get NBN 1000 so far.
It's important to note, however, that your plan's max speed may not always be the speed your connection can achieve. There are a number of factors that can affect NBN speeds including the technology type your NBN connection is delivered over, congestion in the evening, and if you're with one of the fastest NBN providers.
Below are the evening speeds you can expect based on your NBN tier.
| NBN 12 | 12Mbps | 10Mbps |
| NBN 25 | 25Mbps | 22Mbps |
| NBN 50 | 50Mbps | 47Mbps |
| NBN 100 | 100Mbps | 95Mbps |
| NBN 250 | 250Mbps | 200Mbps |
| NBN 1000 | 1,000Mbps | 400Mbps |
NBN 50 (Standard) speed plans
Download speeds
- Up to 50Mbps
- Around 40-50Mbps* during peak hours
NBN 50 speed plans are your best bang for buck option when it comes to the NBN. They're a significant speed upgrade over most ADSL connections and are pretty affordable.
They're also a good option for families - households with about three or four people. An NBN 50 plan will ensure everyone in your household is able to partake in their favourite online activities, whether it's streaming movies and music, online gaming, sharing memes and photos, or video calling with overseas friends and family.
* The exact peak speeds you will experience will depend on your provider's evening speeds.
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Download speeds
- Up to 100Mbps
- Around 80-90Mbps during peak hours*
NBN 100 speed plans are currently the fastest readily available NBN plans and the surest way to future-proof your connection. Large families and share-houses will make use of the capacity of this connection speed to get lots of people online at the same time. If you regularly download large files, these plans are also a good option.
It’s also a good connection speed for businesses, as these connections offer 40Mbps upload speeds, which is great for backing up business systems and sharing large files with colleagues.
Note that these days there are two different types of NBN 100 plan:
- NBN 100 / 20
- NBN 100 / 40
The second number in each case refers to the upload speeds you'll receive. NBN 100 / 20 plans tend to be cheaper, and are a good option for most households. If you upload a lot of large files, you might be better off opting for NBN 100 / 40.
* The exact peak speeds you will experience will depend on your provider's evening speeds.
Here's a look at a few of the fastest available NBN 100 /20 plans:
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And here are a few of the fastest available NBN 100 /40 plans:
Download speeds
- Up to 250Mbps
- Around 215-250Mbps* during peak hours
NBN 250 plans are a super-fast option that will accommodate big households with big internet needs to match.
On top of that, you'll get upload speeds of 25Mbps which can really help if you have a few people working from home or avid gamers. Most NBN plans now cap out at upload speeds of 20Mbps which can feel somewhat laggy when too many people are uploading at the same time.
With download speeds of up to 250Mbps, you can do pretty much anything with this connection. Unfortunately, you'll need to be on an FTTP or HFC connection in order to access this speed tier.
* The exact peak speeds you will experience will depend on your provider's evening speeds.
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Download speeds
- Up to 1000Mbps
- Around 200-700Mbps* during peak hours
The idea of an NBN 1000 plan is enticing. That is a whole 1Gbps of downloads. The possibilities are endless. But realistically you'll only need speeds this fast if you have a big household or potentially are running a small business. But hey, if you have an FTTP or HFC connection and can get it, then why not?
Right now the typical evening speeds for NBN 1000 plans look a little lacklustre but that's because the service is still in its infancy. Telcos are wary of promising speeds that they can't deliver, so the estimates may be lower than what you can actually get.
* The exact peak speeds you will experience will depend on your provider's evening speeds.
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Download speeds
- Up to 25Mbps
- Around 20-25Mbps during peak hours*
NBN 25 speed plans are best suited to one or two-person households. There's not much you can do online that needs a faster speed than NBN 25, but you may notice slower speeds if multiple people are using your connection at once.
A lot of providers no longer offer this speed, or offer it for the same price as NBN 50, thanks to a rejig in NBN wholesale pricing. If your chosen provider offers it for the same price as NBN 50, our advice is to go for NBN 50. You may as well.
* The exact peak speeds you will experience will depend on your provider's evening speeds.
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Download speeds
- Up to 12Mbps
- Around 10 - 12Mbps during peak hours
NBN 12 speed plans are a basic internet connection, roughly equivalent to the average speeds you'd get on ADSL2+. An NBN 12 connection is more than enough for day-to-day internet usage. It won't wow you, but it's still enough to stream high-definition video from the likes of Netflix, Stan or YouTube.
For many, NBN 12 should still be faster than ADSL speeds, but we'd recommend it in very few cases. NBN 12 may be suitable if your household doesn't have heavy internet users, you rarely use streaming video services, or you just want to save money.
It's also worth noting that many providers no longer sell NBN 12 plans.
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Unlike the NBN, home wireless internet plans aren't offered on neatly categorised speed-tiers. But that doesn't mean you can't get some clarity around what speeds to expect.
Home wireless delivers internet to your home using the same mobile networks as your smartphone. Plans are offered on both 4G and 5G mobile networks, and as you might expect, 5G internet plans are faster. In fact, 4G home internet plans tend to be capped at a max speed of 20Mbps. 5G home internet plans, however, are offered at speeds capped to 50Mbps, 100Mbps or even uncapped speeds - which means the internet you get will be as fast as conditions allow.
The conditions that affect your home wireless internet speed include the strength of coverage at your address, congestion on the mobile network and what hardware you're using to connect.
4G home wireless internet plan speeds
These days, nearly every 4G home wireless plan is capped to a max speed of 20Mbps. That's just about equivalent to the speeds offered on an NBN 25 plan, and would probably suit a household of 1-2 light to medium internet users.
The two exceptions, at the time of writing, are Optus' 4G home internet plan which is capped to speeds of 25Mbps, and Yomojo's 4G home internet plan which offers uncapped speeds.
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5G home internet plans in Australia at the moment are offered across three different speed options:
- Capped to 50Mbps
- Capped to 100Mbps
- Uncapped
The first two options are equivalent to the speeds you would expect on an NBN 50 or NBN 100 plan. Uncapped speeds will depend on the conditions at your home. Optus says customers on its uncapped 5G home internet plans should expect typical evening speeds of 225Mbps, while Telstra says its average 5G home internet download speeds are 378Mbps, with a typical speed range from 50Mbps to 600Mbps.
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Just like home wireless internet, mobile broadband connects you to the internet using the mobile networks. The difference is, while home wireless is designed to connect your whole home, mobile broadband is intended for use on-the-go.
The speeds your mobile broadband plan can achieve will vary based on coverage at your home as well as issues like congestion. In most cities, you should be able to comfortably achieve download speeds of 20Mbps to 100Mbps on a 4G mobile broadband connection, depending on where you live.
5G mobile broadband will of course be faster, although how much faster is something providers are still being coy about. However, in our testing of Telstra and Optus 5G mobile broadband offerings, we've typically seen speeds between 200Mbps and 600Mbps.
You can connect via mobile broadband using a range of devices from USB modems (known more popularly as internet dongles), portable WiFi hotspots or get a data SIM which can be inserted into a tablet or old smartphone.
Here's what you'll pay for a mobile broadband plan with a 5G WiFi hotspot included included:
And here are some plans with a 4G WiFi hotspot thrown in:
Download speeds dictate how quickly you can receive files from the internet to your device, while upload speeds determine how fast you can send files from one place to another online.
So when you send an email, back up your Google Drive or add some pictures to Facebook - that’s using your upload speed. If you're streaming a movie on Netflix or opening an attachment from an email, you're downloading. Basically, if you're downloading, you're receiving data and if you're uploading, you're sending it.
It's important to have a look at both speeds, not just download speeds, to determine a suitable internet plan for your needs. Here's a comparison of how long it takes to upload 1GB of data with different upload speeds:
| NBN 12 | 1Mbps | 2 hours, 23 mins |
| NBN 25 | 5Mbps | 28 mins, 37 secs |
| NBN 50 | 20Mbps | 7 mins, 9 secs |
| NBN 100 / 20 | 20Mbps | 7 mins, 9 secs |
| NBN 100 / 40 | 40Mbps | 3 mins, 34 secs |
| NBN 250 | 25Mbps | 5 mins, 43 secs |
| NBN 1000 | 50Mbps | 2 mins, 52 secs |