Reliable internet connections don’t come cheap. The average cost of home internet in America is about $63 a month — and that’s not including the hidden fees on your bill, equipment rental, maintenance fees or whole-home Wi-Fi. Your internet bill can quickly add up, especially if your plan comes with price increases. While some internet providers are cheaper than others, you can still expect to pay a pretty penny for high-speed internet.
Whether you use it for remote work, streaming your favorite shows, online gaming or keeping up with family, it’s hard to live without a decent internet connection. We get it. To keep your budget in check and avoid overpaying for internet, there are a few simple ways to lower your broadband costs and monthly bills. Here are our eight suggestions:
1. First things first, closely examine your internet bill
Before you can find ways to save, first figure out what you’re actually paying. It’s important to determine how much you pay for internet speed and your household’s average monthly data usage. Are you getting a good cost per Mbps for the speed your household is using? Read the fine print from your most recent bills to calculate what your internet service provider is actually charging you, after added fees.
If you’re not sure what download speed you’re supposed to receive, you can find that information on your ISP’s broadband label for the plan you signed up for. Are you getting the speeds advertised for that plan? You can take a simple internet speed test to figure out how much speed you’re actually getting. If your speeds are somewhat slower, you may need to optimize your Wi-Fi setup. Do you have a data cap? If so, are you staying within that data limit, or do you typically incur overage fees? If you’re using too much data every month, it may be time to upgrade to the next tier or to move on to an ISP that doesn’t enforce data caps.
In a larger household, knocking down the number of devices connected to your home internet may be hard.
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4. Explore low-cost internet options
Another potential way to reduce your spending on your home internet is to dig into what discount programs might be available. You should start your search with government programs to help eligible customers cut costs. Lifeline is a program that offers assistance to low-income households that offers about $9 monthly off your broadband bill if you’re eligible. Our low-income internet state-by-state guide has a breakdown of ISPs with low-cost offerings or state programs that may help with your bill.
While you can use the monies and discounts from federal programs like Lifeline on your internet plan, you can also couple those subsidies with providers’ low-cost plans, almost all of which are $30 or less. In the past, that might have meant paltry speeds of 10Mbps or less, but since 2022, many providers have committed to offering low-cost plans with a minimum of 100Mbps download speed in accordance with the new FCC guideline on broadband speeds. That’s a significant difference.
5. Research available competitors
Now that you know your internet speed, what you use it for and what you’re paying to receive your home broadband, it’s time to shop around. Lots of internet competitors are vying for your business — and they try to make it as enticing as possible for customers to switch over. For example, T-Mobile and Verizon have aggressively entered the home internet space with their 5G home internet products. Verizon 5G Home Internet offers a range of perks and streaming add-ons and a contract buyout if you’re stuck with another ISP. T-Mobile Home Internet offers similar perks, like a pre-paid Mastercard for $150.
Other providers will happily give you an introductory rate less than what you currently pay. Sometimes, smaller, local ISPs can provide a better rate than the internet behemoths such as AT&T and Xfinity, but that’s not always the case. Use our comparison shopping tool to research providers in your area.
Before signing up, get an idea of your monthly costs when you switch your internet service to a new provider. Compare what you’re paying now to what you’ll pay for the next month, six months and year. Along with that, what’s the cost after the promo plan ends? Consider your long-term use as well. With the competitive landscape out there, try to find internet providers without long-term contract requirements — unless you know that you’re getting the best possible rate at your address.
Is it possible to get your home internet service for free?
That’s a tricky question because so much depends on what’s available at your location. Generally speaking, fiber internet will often provide the best cost per Mbps, where you’ll get more download and upload speed for your money. However, regarding the cheapest internet, at least in terms of what you’ll pay right out of the gate, that usually comes from cable internet providers. Their first-year promo prices can be tough to beat. Just avoid signing any long-term contract so you can opt out once the price increases.
