Internet Speed for Working From Home and Video Calls
Quick answer
For one person on HD video calls, Zoom recommends about 3.8 Mbps upload and 3.0 Mbps download for 1080p group calls. Aim for at least 10 Mbps upload per person working from home, 25 Mbps+ download, and a bufferbloat grade of A or B.
What remote work actually uses
A typical working day isn't heavy on bandwidth. Email, chat, documents and web apps need very little. The demanding parts are video calls, screen sharing, and moving large files to and from the cloud. Video calls are the ones that hurt when things go wrong, because they're live: there's no buffer to hide a hiccup.
Upload is the limit for most homes
Your camera, microphone and screen share all travel up from your home. Many cable and DSL plans have plenty of download but little upload, so two people on calls can run out. Check yours with the upload speed test.
| Activity | Upload | Download |
|---|---|---|
| HD group video call (1080p) | 3.8 Mbps | 3.0 Mbps |
| Screen sharing | Adds a little more | — |
| Email, chat, documents | Under 1 Mbps | 1–5 Mbps |
| Large file uploads | As much as you can get | — |
Source: Zoom system requirements. Teams and Google Meet publish similar figures.
How much for your household
| Household | Upload | Download |
|---|---|---|
| One remote worker | 10 Mbps+ | 25 Mbps+ |
| Two remote workers | 20 Mbps+ | 50 Mbps+ |
| Two workers + kids streaming | 20–30 Mbps | 100 Mbps+ |
| Creators, large uploads | 50 Mbps+ | 100 Mbps+ |
These include headroom for photo sync, updates and everyone else in the house. Work out your own mix with the speed calculator, and see what is a good upload speed for more detail.
Why calls freeze even on a fast connection
Choppy audio and frozen video usually come from unstable latency, not low speed. When someone in the house starts a big download or a backup, the router's queue fills and your call's packets wait. That's bufferbloat; our speed test grades it A–F. The other common culprit is Wi-Fi: a laptop two rooms from the router will see more jitter, which calls handle badly.
VPNs and company networks
Many employers require a VPN. It sends your traffic through the company's servers first, which can add ping and lower speed, especially if those servers are far away. If calls are fine without the VPN and poor with it, ask your IT team whether video calls can go outside the VPN ("split tunnelling") — many companies already set this up for Zoom and Teams.
Setting up a reliable home office
- Use a cable for your work computer if possible. If not, work in the same room as the router or a mesh unit, on 5 GHz or 6 GHz. See Wi-Fi vs Ethernet.
- Pause cloud backup and large syncs during meetings, or schedule them for evenings.
- Enable SQM, adaptive QoS or "gaming mode" on your router so one big upload can't starve your call.
- Keep a backup option — a phone hotspot can rescue an important meeting if your broadband drops.
- If several people work from home, look for a plan with more upload — fibre plans often have equal upload and download. See fibre vs cable vs DSL vs 5G.
Check during a real call
Run a speed test from your desk at the time you usually have meetings. That's when the connection matters. Look at the upload, the jitter and the bufferbloat grade, not just the download.
Checklist before an important call
- Run the speed test from your desk and check upload and the bufferbloat grade.
- Pause backups, cloud sync and large downloads on every device.
- Close video apps and tabs you don't need.
- Plug in the cable, or move closer to the router.
- Have your phone hotspot ready as a backup.
Is mobile data a good backup?
For short calls, yes. A phone hotspot on good 4G or 5G usually has enough upload for one video call. Keep an eye on your data allowance — an hour of HD video calling can use well over a gigabyte.