What speed does my home really need?
Slide to your best guess, then see what the services themselves publish. By the end you will know roughly what your own household needs, and whether you are paying for far more.
On the services' own figures, a 4K film needs 15 Mbps, a Full HD stream 5 Mbps, a 1080p video call about 4 Mbps and online console play about 1.5 Mbps. Most households land between 15 and 40 Mbps at their busiest, so two to three times that is plenty of headroom.
What you will learn
- 1What streaming, calls and gaming really need
- 2How to add up your own busiest evening
- 3Why headroom matters, and how much
Why it matters
Most speed advice online is a table of numbers with no source. Our speed guide went to Netflix, YouTube, Zoom, Microsoft and the games companies and read what each one publishes. The figures are much lower than the tables suggest: a 4K film, a Full HD stream, a 1080p call and an online game all at once come to about 25 Mbps.
You still want headroom. Wi-Fi loses some speed between the router and the sofa, streams arrive in bursts and households grow. Two to three times your busiest evening covers all of that, which for most homes lands on a package somewhere between 60 and 150 Mbps.
Every answer, explained
Spoilers below. Play first, then open any question to see the answer, the reason and the source.
1. Netflix publishes a recommended speed for one 4K Ultra HD stream. What is it, in Mbps?
Answer: 15 Mbps
Netflix says 15 Mbps or higher for 4K Ultra HD, 5 Mbps for Full HD and 3 Mbps for HD. It is the biggest figure Netflix publishes for one screen.
2. Two people watch different Full HD streams at the same time. On Netflix's figure of 5 Mbps each, how much do the two streams need?
Answer: 10 Mbps
5 plus 5 is 10 Mbps. Adding up what happens at the same time is the whole trick to sizing your broadband.
3. On a 1080p Zoom call, which needs more speed?
Answer: Upload: 3.8 Mbps
Zoom asks for 3.8 Mbps up and 3.0 Mbps down for 1080p. Your own camera has to leave the house, so upload is the half that matters for calls.
4. A 4K film, a Full HD stream, a 1080p video call and an online console game, all at once. On the services' own figures, roughly how much is that?
Answer: About 25 Mbps
About 25 Mbps: 15 for the film, 5 for the stream, about 3 for the call and 1.5 for the game. Our speed guide adds it up from each company's own figures.
Source: BroadbandSwitch.uk speed guide
5. Nintendo says many online services work best at a download speed of 1.5 Mbps or higher.
Answer: True
True. Nintendo is the only console maker that publishes a figure for ordinary online play, and it is 1.5 Mbps. What spoils a game is usually packet loss and lag, not speed.
Source: BroadbandSwitch.uk speed guide
6. Why buy a bit more than the bare sum of your busiest evening?
Answer: Headroom for Wi-Fi losses, bursts and a growing household
Streams arrive in bursts, Wi-Fi loses some speed between rooms and households change. Two to three times your measured peak covers it. Twenty times does not add much.
Source: BroadbandSwitch.uk speed guide
7. Netflix says 4K Ultra HD uses up to how many gigabytes of data an hour?
Answer: 7 GB
Up to 7 GB an hour per device for 4K, and up to 3 GB for HD. Handy to know if you are on a data cap or a mobile plan.
Source: Netflix Help Center, data use
Compare broadband
See every deal at your postcode
Every provider that reaches your address, cheapest first. It takes about ten seconds.
Questions people ask
- What broadband speed does a typical UK home need?
- On the services' own published figures, most households need between 15 and 40 Mbps at their busiest moment. Two to three times that gives sensible headroom, which usually means a package between 60 and 150 Mbps.
- Is 4K streaming the biggest user?
- Usually, yes. Netflix asks for 15 Mbps per 4K stream, so several people watching 4K at once is the one case where a home genuinely needs a bigger number.
Play next
How we checked this quiz
Every answer was checked on 9 November 2026 against the source listed with it, mostly Ofcom and the companies that publish the figures, and dated figures say when they apply. Questions that depend on a date, such as compensation amounts that rise each April, are hidden automatically once they pass their review date, so the quiz never shows an out-of-date answer. Your scores, badges and streaks are kept on this device only. Anonymous answer counts help us show how other players did, with no names or personal details.
References
- James, A. (2026, October 13). What broadband speed do I need? The figures the services actually publish. BroadbandSwitch.uk. https://broadbandswitch.uk/what-broadband-speed-do-i-need.html
- Netflix. (n.d.). How to control how much data Netflix uses. Netflix Help Center. Retrieved November 9, 2026. https://help.netflix.com/en/node/87
- Netflix. (n.d.). Netflix-recommended internet speeds. Netflix Help Center. Retrieved November 9, 2026. https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306
- Zoom. (n.d.). Zoom system requirements: Windows, macOS, Linux. Zoom Support. Retrieved November 9, 2026. https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0060748
We may earn a commission if you switch through BroadbandSwitch.uk. It never changes a quiz answer, a result or the order of deals. Quiz results never point to a particular provider. Spotted something we should check? Email editorial@broadbandswitch.uk and we will look at it.