What Is a Good Upload Speed?
A good upload speed for most homes is 10 to 20 Mbps. That covers several video calls at once, photo backups and sending large files. 20 Mbps is the upload part of the US FCC benchmark for high-speed broadband. One person on video calls can manage on 5 Mbps, while livestreaming in HD or uploading big videos every day calls for 20 Mbps or more.
Upload speed is how fast your connection sends data out: your camera image on a call, a file you attach to an email, photos syncing to the cloud. Most plans give far less upload than download, so upload is often the first thing to run out. To see yours, run our free internet speed test. It shows upload, download, ping and jitter in under a minute.
Good upload speed at a glance
| What you do | Upload you need | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Email, browsing, messaging | Under 1 Mbps | |
| Audio-only call (Microsoft Teams) | About 0.06 to 0.08 Mbps | Microsoft |
| One-to-one video call (Teams) | 1.5 Mbps, or 4 Mbps for best quality | Microsoft |
| Group video call in 1080p HD (Zoom) | 3.8 Mbps | Zoom |
| Group video call in 1080p at 60 frames per second (Zoom) | 12.8 Mbps | Zoom |
| Livestream to YouTube in 720p, 30 fps (H.264) | 3 Mbps minimum, 8 Mbps recommended | YouTube |
| Livestream to YouTube in 1080p, 30 fps (H.264) | 5 Mbps minimum, 14 Mbps recommended | YouTube |
| Livestream to YouTube in 4K, 30 fps (H.264) | 11 Mbps minimum, 42 Mbps recommended | YouTube |
These are per person or per stream. Add them up for your household. Two people on 1080p Zoom calls at the same time need about 7.6 Mbps of upload (3.8 + 3.8) before anyone else sends anything. A third person backing up photos to the cloud will push that higher.
The official benchmarks
- US: the FCC raised its benchmark for high-speed fixed broadband to 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload on 14 March 2024.
- UK: the legal minimum for “decent” broadband under the universal service is 10 Mbit/s download and 1 Mbit/s upload, according to Ofcom. That is a safety net. 1 Mbps upload is not enough for an HD video call.
So for most homes, 20 Mbps upload is a good target, and anything under 5 Mbps will struggle as soon as two people make video calls at the same time.
How long uploads take
Upload time depends on the file size and your upload speed. The formula is: seconds = size in MB × 8 ÷ upload speed in Mbps. The times below are the best case, with nothing else using the connection.
| Upload speed | 150 MB of photos | 1 GB video | 10 GB backup |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Mbps | 4 min | 26 min 40 sec | 4 hr 27 min |
| 10 Mbps | 2 min | 13 min 20 sec | 2 hr 13 min |
| 20 Mbps | 1 min | 6 min 40 sec | 1 hr 7 min |
| 50 Mbps | 24 sec | 2 min 40 sec | 26 min 40 sec |
| 100 Mbps | 12 sec | 1 min 20 sec | 13 min 20 sec |
Here 1 GB means 1,000 MB. If the units confuse you, our guide to Mbps vs MBps explains why speeds use bits and files use bytes.
Our own test: what our upload speed is good for
We ran our Internet Speed Test four times on 12 November 2026 on one home connection over Wi-Fi:
| Test | Download | Upload | Idle ping |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16.0 Mbps | 12.6 Mbps | 61 ms |
| 2 | 16.2 Mbps | 12.1 Mbps | 52 ms |
| 3 | 13.7 Mbps | 14.3 Mbps | 9 ms |
| 4 | 15.8 Mbps | 12.9 Mbps | 8 ms |
What this tells us:
- Upload was 12.1 to 14.3 Mbps. That is enough for two or three people on 1080p Zoom calls at once (3.8 Mbps each), or one 1080p YouTube livestream at its 5 Mbps minimum.
- It is below the FCC’s 20 Mbps. It is not enough for YouTube’s recommended 14 Mbps for 1080p streaming with room to spare, and a 10 GB backup would take about 1 hour 45 minutes at 12.9 Mbps.
- Ping rose under load. In test 4, ping was 8 ms when the line was quiet but went up to 126 ms while the test was downloading and uploading. A large upload, such as a cloud backup, can make calls and games lag for everyone in the house. Our guide to what a good ping is explains why.
Upload speed vs download speed
Download is data coming to you: streaming, web pages, downloads. Upload is data you send: your video on calls, files you share, posts and backups.
Most of what people do at home is download, so many plans give much more download than upload. That is fine for watching, but working from home has changed things. Every video call sends a steady stream of upload, and cloud backup apps upload in the background. If calls freeze for other people while you can see them fine, your upload is the likely limit.
How to improve your upload speed
- Pause cloud backups and syncing during important calls. Photo backup apps, Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud and Dropbox can use all of your upload.
- Use a cable instead of Wi-Fi for the device you call or stream from.
- Lower the video quality of your stream or call if your upload is tight. YouTube’s table shows 720p needs far less upload than 1080p.
- Check your plan. If your speed test shows about the upload your plan promises, the plan itself is the limit. Ask your provider what upload speed higher plans or fibre give.
- Test at different times. Upload can drop in busy evening hours. Our tool keeps your last five results so you can compare.
Summary
- 10 to 20 Mbps upload is good for most homes. 20 Mbps meets the FCC benchmark.
- 5 Mbps is enough for one person on video calls. Add up every call and stream that happens at the same time.
- Livestreaming in 1080p needs at least 5 Mbps, and YouTube recommends 14 Mbps with H.264.
- Big uploads can raise ping for everyone, so watch the “lag when the line is busy” result too.
Test your upload speed now, then see our guide to what a good internet speed is for download speed.