Numbers below are the published requirements from each provider’s own help pages, rounded to the values their documentation actually commits to. They’re per-use: a “Netflix 4K stream” is 15 Mbps for each screen. The calculator on the home page uses these same figures.

Streaming video

Service	SD	HD (1080p)	4K / UHD
Netflix	~3 Mbps	~5 Mbps	~15 Mbps
YouTube	~1 Mbps (480p)	~5 Mbps	~20 Mbps
Disney+	—	~5 Mbps	~25 Mbps
Prime Video	~1 Mbps	~5 Mbps	~15 Mbps
Hulu	~3 Mbps	~8 Mbps (live)	~16 Mbps
Twitch (watching)	—	~7.5 Mbps (source)	—

Two details the brochures skip. First, these are sustained numbers: a 4K stream doesn’t average 15 Mbps, it holds it continuously — so “we only watch 4K sometimes” still means 15 Mbps of your plan is spoken for when it happens. Second, bitrate != file size: a stream that stutters on a fast line is usually a latency/Wi-Fi problem, not a bandwidth one — see bandwidth vs latency.

Video calls and meetings

Service	1:1 call	Group call (HD)
Zoom	~1.2 Mbps each way	~3–4 Mbps each way
Google Meet	~2.5 Mbps each way	~3.5 Mbps each way
Microsoft Teams	~1.5 Mbps each way	~2.5–4 Mbps each way

Calls are the activity where upload and download matter equally — your outgoing video rides the upload half of the plan that ISPs under-spec. Three people in the same house on three separate calls need ~12 Mbps up, which already exceeds the upload tier of many entry-level cable plans.

Gaming

Activity	Download	Upload	What actually binds it
Online play (any title)	~3–6 Mbps	~1 Mbps	Latency & jitter, not Mbps
Game downloads / updates	whatever you have	—	pure size ÷ speed
GeForce NOW	~15 Mbps (720p60) – 40+ Mbps (4K)	—	sustained throughput + latency
Xbox Cloud Gaming	~10–20 Mbps	—	sustained throughput + latency
Streaming your play (Twitch 1080p60)	~1 Mbps	~6–8 Mbps	upload headroom

The misconception: “gaming needs gigabit.” Playing needs almost no bandwidth — a 25 Mbps line with clean latency beats a 500 Mbps line with bufferbloat. The two bandwidth-heavy gaming activities are downloading games (a 150 GB title is ~20 minutes at gigabit, ~3.5 hours at 100 Mbps — the arithmetic lives at our sibling download-time calculator) and cloud gaming, which is really 4K video streaming with inputs attached.

Everything else in the house

Activity	Download	Upload
Music streaming	~0.3–0.6 Mbps	—
Web browsing / social	~1–2 Mbps bursty	minimal
Smart-home devices (each)	~0.2–0.3 Mbps	~0.3 Mbps
Cloud security camera (each)	~0.5 Mbps	~2–5 Mbps when recording
Cloud backup / photo sync	—	whatever is free
Phone OS/app updates	bursty GBs	—

Smart devices are individually trivial but collectively real: thirty IoT devices is ~6–9 Mbps of ambient load before anyone opens an app. Cameras are the trap — they push traffic up, so a house with several cameras plus two remote workers can max out a 20 Mbps upload while the download meter looks empty.

The honest summary

A single user streaming HD while on a call needs roughly 15–25 Mbps of real capacity. A four-person household at a realistic evening peak — two HD streams, one 4K stream, a call, a console, background devices — needs roughly 80–150 Mbps, which is why the comfortable plan sizes cluster at 150–300 Mbps. Gigabit is for heavier cases or for finishing downloads faster, not for making Netflix sharper.

Numbers current as of September 2026; providers revise them occasionally. When precision matters, the provider’s own help page wins over this table — and over any ISP sales call.

Frequently asked questions

How many Mbps does Netflix need for 4K?

Netflix publishes 15 Mbps per Ultra HD (4K) stream, 5 Mbps for HD and 3 Mbps for SD — per stream, so two simultaneous 4K streams need ~30 Mbps before anything else uses the connection.

How much speed does a Zoom call need?

Zoom's published figures run from ~1.2 Mbps for a 1:1 HD call up to roughly 3–4 Mbps each way for HD group calls with gallery view. Both directions matter — the upload requirement is what catches people on asymmetric cable plans.

Do games use a lot of bandwidth?

Playing a game uses only ~3–6 Mbps down and ~1 Mbps up — less than an HD stream. What games actually need is low, stable latency. The exception is cloud gaming (GeForce NOW, Xbox Cloud), which streams video: 15–40 Mbps depending on resolution.

How much speed does a security camera need?

Cloud cameras (Ring, Nest, Arlo-style) upload continuously or when motion triggers — roughly 1–5 Mbps upload each at their default quality. Three cameras can quietly claim 10 Mbps of your upload, which is why they matter more than their download usage suggests.

Is 50 Mbps enough for streaming and video calls?

For one or two people, usually: one HD stream (5 Mbps) + one HD call (4 Mbps each way) + background devices fits in ~15–20 Mbps of real load. It gets tight with 4K streaming or two simultaneous calls — headroom is what the calculator adds on top.