Best Internet Providers in Austin, Texas – CNET

The speed-testing site Ookla keeps track of the top cities in the US for median download speeds based on millions of tests run daily by the company. In Ookla’s latest reporting, Austin — the country’s 28th most populous metro area — ranked as the 11th fastest city, registering a median download speed of 236 megabits per second. That was good enough to place ATX well ahead of its Texas big-city siblings Dallas and Houston.

One thing to note about those speeds: Austin gets a boost from the fast fiber options found within city limits, including AT&T and Google Fiber, and the wide availability of the consistent cable connection provided by Spectrum. But if you venture beyond Travis County to Round Rock, Georgetown or some rural areas east of Austin, you won’t see anything close to those median speeds. Apart from last-resort satellite options like HughesNet and Viasat, there are some regional fixed wireless solutions, as well as the option to explore 5G home internet (though availability is limited more closely to the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown hub). 

Best internet providers in ATX

Austinites have plenty of internet options to sort through. CNET examines customer service, speed, pricing and overall value before recommending the best broadband in your area. Whatever those options may be at your address, we’re here to help you comb through your choices. Here’s what you need to know about the best internet providers in Austin.

Note: The prices, speeds and features detailed in the article text may differ from those listed in the product detail cards, which represent providers’ national offerings. Your particular internet service options — including prices and speeds — depend on your address and may differ from those detailed here.

Price $100 per month Speed 2,000Mbps Connection Fiber Highlights Unlimited data, no contract, no equipment fees

Admittedly, this was a tough call. AT&T was nipping at the heels of Google Fiber. But not all Austin residents are serviceable for AT&T Fiber. Many still have to deal with AT&T’s DSL service, an inferior product whose download speeds max out around 100Mbps, and in some areas, tops out at only around 25Mbps. Conversely, if you have access to Google Fiber, you know exactly what you will get — 100% fiber-optic internet service with symmetrical download and upload speeds. 

Availability: As for where you can find Google Fiber in Austin, your best bet is in the heart of ATX, including the South Lamar, South Congress and East Austin neighborhoods. But service is also beginning to extend towards the north portion of the city, including the Allandale, Mueller, North Loop and North Shoal Creek neighborhoods. The expansion has also begun into Round Rock.

Plans and pricing: Google Fiber features only two plans — 1,000Mbps and 2,000Mbps — but each has fast internet speeds. The gigabit plan is $70 per month, and the 2 gig tier costs $100 monthly.

Fees and service details: There are no data caps, contracts or equipment rental fees with Google Fiber. It may not be your top selection if you want a cheap internet option. Still, in terms of value, Google Fiber stands tall: The gigabit plan has an affordable cost per Mbps of 7 cents, while the two gig plan boasts an even better 5 cents per Mbps. 

Read our Google Fiber home internet review.

Check Google Fiber – 2 Gig availability

Price range $50 – $90 per month Speed range 300 – 940Mbps Connection Cable Highlights Unlimited data, simple pricing, no contracts, modem included, free access to nationwide Wi-Fi hotspots

Charter Communications’ broadband service covers a large swath of the greater Austin metro, up over 84% of the area, according to the FCC’s latest numbers.

Availability: You can find Spectrum internet service throughout Austin city limits, as well as down into Kyle and Dripping Springs and up north into Pflugerville, Round Rock and Leander. That’s especially helpful if you plan to move within the area and don’t want the hassle of setting up with a new service provider.  

Plans and pricing: No matter where you’re located, you’ll have three plan options — 300, 500 or 940Mbps download speed. The starting price ranges from $50 to $90, though bundle discounts are available through Spectrum One (internet and mobile).

Fees and service details: Its straightforward approach is a big Spectrum strength. There’s no fear of additional fees from overage charges since no data limits exist. The company’s home internet service also includes the modem in the monthly costs, though you’ll need to add $5 a month if you want a Wi-Fi router. 

While its upload speeds top out at 35Mbps (which falls well short of what fiber internet can achieve), Spectrum’s reliability — especially compared to the more spotty DSL and satellite internet services that are also prevalent in the area — is tough to overstate.

Read our Spectrum Internet review.

Check Spectrum Internet availability

Price range $50 per month ($30 for eligible T-Mobile Magenta Max customers) Speed range 72 – 245Mbps Connection Fixed wireless Highlights Unlimited data, equipment included, no contracts, no additional fees

T-Mobile and Verizon have been pushing hard for their 5G internet services, but T-Mobile Home Internet gets the nod here for the Live Music Capital of the World. A MoffettNathanson report from April 2022 used Comlinkdata to surmise that approximately a third of T-Mobile Home Internet subscribers are from rural areas, even though less than 10% of the company’s current footprint is rural. So, T-Mobile Home Internet, in just over a year of business, is becoming a viable option for many where DSL or satellite had been the only choices.

Availability: While you’ll find the Austin area included in T-Mobile’s coverage list for Texas, you’ll still need to confirm it’s serviceable at your location. You can plug in your address (or your mobile phone number if you’re already a T-Mobile customer) on the T-Mobile Home Internet site to find out if it’s available.

Plans and pricing: There’s only one plan with T-Mobile Home Internet. It features download speeds of 72-245Mbps for $50 per month. Customers with eligible mobile plans can get home internet service for $30 monthly.

Fees and service details: T-Mobile Home Internet features no contracts, data caps or equipment fees. There’s a one-time activation charge of $35, but there’s also a lifetime price lock guarantee and a 15-day worry-free trial. 

Read our T-Mobile Home Internet review.

Check T-Mobile availability

Internet providers in Austin overview

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• Optimum: Suddenlink is the name many in the Austin area might know but parent company Altice USA rebranded it in 2022. So, the freshly-named Optimum service is very lightly scattered in the metro area — mostly around the Austin Recreation Center and near Barton Creek Wilderness Park — but is more concentrated north of ATX in Pflugerville. This cable ISP boasts competitive starting rates and decent signing perks, including Visa gift cards and bundling discounts with unlimited mobile plans.
• Ranch Wireless: This VTX-1 wireless provider to south-central Texas services a few towns on the outer reaches of the Austin metro area, including Bastrop, Cedar Creek, Dale, Elgin, Lockhart, Mustang Ridge and Uhland. Customers can expect to see residential plans that range from $30 a month for 1Mbps download and 30GB of data, to $120 a month for 25Mbps and unlimited data.
• Rise Broadband: One of the country’s top fixed wireless solutions for rural areas. This provider is a viable option for residents living in east Austin, stretching out to the towns of Manor and Elgin, as well as points north of the city, including portions of Georgetown, Pflugerville, Round Rock and Taylor. Speeds can get as high as 50Mbps, and there are unlimited data options as well, so if your choice is between satellite and Rise Broadband, this should win out.
• Satellite internet: Typically, I’d tell anyone in a metro area to run, not walk, away from satellite internet service. You’ll find much cheaper and faster alternatives in the city. However, many outside the urban limits of Austin won’t have the same access. That’s when it’s time to consider either HughesNet or Viasat, the leading satellite broadband providers. One of the biggest drawbacks to both is they each require a two-year contract commitment. Newcomer Starlink has them beat on that front — the service features no term contract agreements. However, per the Starlink map, Austin’s availability is still on the waitlist until sometime later in 2023.
• SOS Communications: Another regional fixed wireless provider, SOS extends the majority of its coverage area just beyond the Austin metro area, but serviceability ranges down into Georgetown and Hutto as well as to the west of Austin in Elgin. Customers must provide their own router, but SOS is set apart from other regional wireless providers because there’s no contract required and no data caps on any of its wireless plans. Available speeds range from 10-100Mbps. 
• TexasData: This local ISP offers a fixed wireless solution for customers in the Texas Hill Country west of Austin. It caters to areas unable to get cable or DSL services. Monthly plans cover speeds from 2Mbps to 20Mbps, with prices ranging from $40 to $200 monthly. 
• Verizon 5G Home Internet: Availability for Verizon’s 5G fixed wireless home internet product is expanding to more areas. It has a higher average download speed (300Mbps) than T-Mobile Home Internet and boasts a similar all-in price that includes equipment rental, installation fees and taxes for $50 a month (and eligible Verizon Wireless customers can get a 50% discount to drive that down to $25 a month). So why’d we list T-Mobile higher? Verizon’s coverage still tends to lean strongly towards metro areas due to its strong utilization of its Ultra Wideband 5G technology. In contrast, T-Mobile also uses its 4G LTE network to increase availability. If you’re within the Capital City limits, you should explore this option, but many others will find it outside their grasp.

Pricing for Austin home internet service 

The average starting price for internet service in Austin — taking into account the promo prices, not the elevated regular rates — is approximately $43 per month, which puts ATX right in the middle of the pack of the other markets CNET has covered, including Brooklyn ($36 a month), Los Angeles ($38 a month), Denver ($39 per month), San Francisco ($40 a month), New York City ($41 per month), Seattle ($42 monthly), Dallas and Philadelphia (both near $43 per month), Houston ($45 monthly), Phoenix ($46 per month), Atlanta ($47 monthly), Orlando and San Antonio ($48 a month) and Charlotte, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Diego and St. Louis (all approximately $50 monthly). 

Cheap internet options in ATX

Currently, the lowest starting price you can find in Austin is $25 per month. That belongs to both Rise Broadband and Astound Broadband. Rise Broadband’s offering is a 25Mbps plan. Impressively, the standard price only jumps by $10 after the first year. 

But Astound Broadband’s $25 monthly tier is a 300Mbps cable internet plan. If it’s available at your address, that’s the best value.

Speaking of value, most of the providers we’ve listed are also participating in the Federal Communication Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program. This FCC initiative provides a $30-a-month discount to qualifying low-income households to help them find affordable, high-speed internet. If you qualify, the ACP benefit can be used towards any internet plan from participating providers. In some cases, especially from the 20 providers who recently partnered with the White House on its digital divide initiatives, you might be able to get internet service for free. 

Source: CNET analysis of provider data

Fastest internet providers in Austin

People within the city limits have access to the superior speeds of fiber internet service, tilting the scales here. Case in point, Ookla’s data tags Google Fiber as the fastest provider in Austin, with a median download speed of approximately 269Mbps. But both AT&T and Frontier offer fiber plans as fast as 5Gbps, so those are the fastest individual plans you’ll find.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data

Our final word on Austin internet providers

Within the city limits of Austin, cable internet is still the most ubiquitous internet connection you’ll find. And as far as cable internet providers go, Spectrum and Astound Broadband present solid value with their offerings. But as we’ve often mentioned in our CNET home internet coverage, fiber internet trumps cable every time. If your address is serviceable for Google Fiber or AT&T Fiber — and thankfully, both companies are continuing to expand their fiber networks within ATX — then you shouldn’t give signing up a second thought.

How CNET chose the best internet providers in Austin

Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen tool, it’s impractical to personally test every ISP in a given city. So what’s our approach? We start by researching the pricing, availability and speed information drawing on our own historical ISP data, the provider sites and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC.gov.

But it doesn’t end there. We go to the FCC’s website to check our data and ensure we’re considering every ISP that provides service in an area. We also input local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for residents. To evaluate how happy customers are with an ISP’s service, we look at sources including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Power. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; all information provided is accurate as of the time of publication. 

Once we have this localized information, we ask three main questions: 

• Does the provider offer access to reasonably fast internet speeds? 
• Do customers get decent value for what they’re paying? 
• Are customers happy with their service? 

While the answer to those questions is often layered and complex, the providers who come closest to “yes” on all three are the ones we recommend. 

To explore our process in more depth, visit our How We Test ISPs page.

Internet providers in Austin FAQs