This might come as a surprise, but faster speeds aren’t always better. While speed is important, you probably don’t need the 1,000Mbps speed your internet provider is advertising as “the best deal” unless you have a house chock full of heavy internet users and bandwidth-hogging devices. Plus, gigabit plans are usually on the more expensive side of home internet. Let’s take a closer look at how to determine if gigabit internet is worth the price.
What is gigabit internet?
Let’s start at the beginning: Digital information is measured in bits, and a megabit is 1,000,000 bits. Your internet speeds are measured in bits per second or, more commonly today, megabits per second. That unit measures how much data is processed over a network in a second. 1,000Mbps is equal to 1 gigabit per second, or Gbps.
The more megabits or gigabits per second your internet connection can accommodate, the better performance you can expect when streaming video or playing online games without lag or glitches, at least up to a point. You can still experience interruptions with a gigabit plan depending on a number of factors like your Wi-Fi setup, the layout of your home and the number of heavy internet users in the house. But we’ll get into that later.
How much speed do you really need?
To evaluate whether or not you need a gigabit tier, first consider how much speed your household consumes each month. Do you notice a lot of lag, buffering and interruption? If you’ve already rundown the list of slow Wi-Fi solutions and found your speeds still lacking, you might need to upgrade. But sometimes the fix can be a small one, like moving your router to a central, raised location in the house. If you have a plan with a data cap, are you hitting your limit early in the month? Most ISPs offer apps that allow you to monitor your data usage, regardless of whether you have a data cap. If you’re using a lot of data month over month and noticing slowdowns, you could potentially use a speed upgrade.
Next, take stock of how many smart devices and internet users are in your household. You can consult our internet speed guide and the FCC’s household broadband guide for more in-depth tips on evaluating how much speed you’ll need, but the recommendation for the heaviest internet usage (like streaming in high-quality video, using Zoom, or downloading files) requires only 25Mbps per action. A good rule of thumb is that if you have more than four heavy internet users in the house at a time (think gamers, streamers, remote workers or students), an upgrade to a gigabit tier could make sense. Otherwise, you’ll be paying for speeds you won’t use.
Cable versus fiber gigabit internet
Two types of internet connections can legitimately deliver consistent gigabit-speed internet: cable and fiber. Moreover, fiber internet is the broadband gold standard since it offers lightning-fast connections and symmetrical download and upload speeds, giving you the fastest internet possible. It’s more reliable than cable and less prone to being affected by peak usage times or congestion.
Cable internet provides connection through the same coaxial cables providers use for TV services, so it’s frequently bundled with TV packages. It’s more reliable than satellite internet and offers faster download speeds, too. But unlike fiber, cable internet’s upload speeds are significantly slower than its download speeds. So, if you’re sending emails or video chatting, you might experience some delay.
Which providers offer gigabit internet?
Most national internet service providers offer gigabit plans. There’s a mix of fiber and cable providers that can offer speeds up to a gigabit, with most fiber providers, like AT&T and Google Fiber, offering speeds up to a gigabit and much faster. Unfortunately, fiber internet access is still pretty limited, with an overall 46% availability, according to the latest data from the Federal Communications Commission. Spectrum, Astound Broadband and others offer gigabit plans over cable connections and are much more widely available than fiber providers. Notably, although Verizon 5G claims to offer speeds up to 1,000Mbps, only a select lucky handful of customers will see those speeds. Besides Starry, Verizon 5G Home Internet is the only other major 5G home internet provider to offer gigabit speeds.
Although it’s possible we’ll see multi-gigabit speeds from Starlink in the future, satellite ISPs and DSL internet providers do not offer gigabit speeds. Here are some of the major ISPs in the country that offer gigabit speeds.
| Plan | Starting price | Max download speed | Cost per Mbps | Equipment fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Altafiber | $65 | 1,000Mbps | 7 cents | $12 (optional) |
| Astound 1000 Read full review |
$45 | 1,000Mbps | 5 cents | None |
| AT&T Fiber Read full review |
$80 | 1,000Mbps | 8 cents | None |
| Brightspeed Fiber | $59 | 940Mbps | 6 cents | None |
| Cox Go Super Fast Internet Read full review |
$70 | 1,000Mbps | 7 cents | None |
| Frontier Fiber Read full review |
$65 | 1,000Mbps | 7 cents | None |
| Google Fiber Read full review |
$70 | 1,000Mbps | 7 cents | None |
| Kinetic | $40 for three months ($70 after) | 1,000Mbps | 4 cents | $11 (optional) |
| Metronet Read full review |
$50 | 1,000Mbps | 5 cents | None |
| Optimum Read full review |
$60 | 1,000Mbps | 6 cents | None |
| Quantum Fiber | $85 | 940Mbps | 9 cents | None |
| Spectrum Read full review |
$70 | 1,000Mbps | 7 cents | None |
| Starry 1 Gig Read full review |
$85 | 1,000Mbps | 9 cents | None |
| Verizon 5G Home Internet Read full review |
$70 ($45 with qualifying Verizon 5G mobile plans) | 1,000Mbps | 7 cents | None |
| Verizon Fios Read full review |
$90 | 940Mbps | 10 cents | None |
| WOW Internet 1 Gig Read full review |
$60 | 1,000Mbps | 6 cents | None |
| Xfinity Read full review |
$75 | 1,000Mbps | 8 cents | Optional $15 gateway rental (included for 24 months) |
| Ziply Fiber | $50 | 1,000Mbps | 5 cents | None |
