Our picks
90001 Edit ZIP code
Plans starting at $30
$20 – $80 per month
Plans starting at $55
$55 – $250 per month
Plans starting around $50
$55 per month
Plans starting at $30 for Fiber, $65 for DSL
$50 – $155 per month
Plans starting at $25
$40 – $70 per month
Plans starting at $40
$40 – $280 per month
Plans starting at $50
$50 – $80 per month
Plans starting at $80
$90 – $120 per month
Plans starting at $30
$30 – $80 per month
Service starting at $50
$60 per month
Plans starting at $50
$50 – $120 per month
Plans starting at $50
$50 – $70 per month
Plans starting at $30
$20 – $95 per month
Plans starting at $20
$20 – $900 per month
Dealing with data restrictions is not only annoying but can also easily add to your monthly internet bill. Home internet can get expensive. A CNET survey highlights that one in five US adults have downgraded plans, switched internet providers or even cancelled service due to the rising cost of home internet.
Between streaming, gaming, working from home, uploading videos to social media and everything else we use the internet for, it’s possible to burn through a large chunk of data each month. That’s not a big deal if you have an internet provider that offers unlimited data, but if you’re stuck with an internet provider that enforces a monthly cap on your data, you’ll want to keep a close eye on your usage to avoid overage fees or throttled speeds.
Instead of monitoring your monthly data use to avoid penalty, I recommend using an internet provider with unlimited data. Here are the top ISPs to offer truly unlimited data with no monthly caps.
Best internet providers with no data caps
Cable
100 – 1,500 Mbps
$20 – $80 per month
300 – 5,000 Mbps
$55 – $250 per month
Our take – AT&T is our pick for the best fiber internet provider overall thanks to its high availability, competitive pricing, fast speeds and unlimited data. All AT&T Fiber plans come with no data cap, which means you can stream, game and browse social media without fear of incurring overage fees.
Fiber
DSL
10 – 140 Mbps
$55 per month
500 – 5,000 Mbps
$50 – $155 per month
Our take – Unlike AT&T, Frontier offers unlimited data with both its DSL and fiber-optic internet services. Equipment costs are also included in the monthly cost and no contracts are required, making Frontier one of the more straightforward providers when it comes to pricing. Unlimited data adds to the value of any internet plan, but some Frontier plans are a better value than others. Frontier’s DSL service starts at $65 per month but max speeds vary widely by location.
Fiber
Fiber
100 – 1,000 Mbps
$40 – $70 per month
300 – 8,000 Mbps
$40 – $280 per month
Our take – Optimum includes unlimited data with all its plans. Along with that advantage, Optimum plans are priced lower than most considering the speeds you get. For example, you can get 1,000Mbps for just $40 monthly ($55 monthly after one year, which is still on par with competitors) and an introductory tier of 300Mbps for $30. If you live in the Northeast and are serviceable for its fiber tiers, you can access faster speeds of 2-gig, 5-gig and 8-gig tiers for $90, $120 and $280 a month, respectively. Largely a cable internet provider, Optimum also offers fiber-optic service in select areas. More than 2.8 million Optimum-serviceable homes are eligible for fiber service at no extra cost.
Cable, fiber
Quantum Fiber
Cable
500 – 1,000 Mbps
$50 – $80 per month
20 – 250 Mbps
$90 – $120 per month
Our take – Restricting data caps were a common pain point with satellite internet, but Starlink is remedying many of satellite internet’s drawbacks, including limited data. Unlimited data is included with each Starlink plan, but select tiers include an allotment of priority data that grants “network precedence over standard and mobile data, meaning users will experience faster and more consistent download and upload speeds.” Once the priority data pool is exhausted, users fall to the standard, yet still unlimited, data tier.
Satellite
Fixed wireless
50 – 1,000 Mbps
$30 – $80 per month
72 – 245 Mbps
$60 per month
Our take – 5G may be the future of home internet, at least in underserved areas where cable and fiber internet is either unavailable or too expensive. That’s where T-Mobile comes in. The provider is available to more than 30 million homes, a third of which are in rural or suburban areas. T-Mobile’s 5G home internet service now offers two internet speed tiers — 87Mbps to 318Mbps and 133Mbps to 415Mbps — prices range from $50 to $70 monthly and come with unlimited data, no contracts and no additional equipment fees. You can bundle your home internet with eligible mobile plans to receive a discount.
Fixed wireless
Fiber
300 – 2,000 Mbps
$50 – $120 per month
85 – 1,000 Mbps
$50 – $70 per month
Our take – Verizon’s 5G home internet service offers two plans: $50 per month for speeds ranging from 50 to 300Mbps or $70 for anywhere between 85 and 1,000Mbps. The actual speeds you can get will depend on your location, but either way, unlimited data is included with both plans. Service also comes with free equipment and no contract requirements. Perhaps best of all, qualifying Verizon mobile customers can get an additional discount of $15 or $25 off 5G home internet service.
Fixed wireless
Cable
100 – 1,200 Mbps
$20 – $95 per month
100 – 50,000 Mbps
$20 – $900 per month
Our take – Ziply Fiber offers six fiber plans including an impressive 50Gbps tier. DSL service is also available in select areas starting at a steep $60 per month, but speeds vary based on location. Customers can enjoy unlimited data with either service.
Fiber
Best unlimited data internet providers compared
Please note that the plans below show each provider’s cheapest available tier. The max speed is the top advertised speed for that given plan, but it might not be available in your area. Overall, the best selection for you — and the most cost-effective plan — might be a different tier that provides a faster speed at a higher price but a better value. To more fully understand this value-based approach, check out CNET’s guide to examining the cost per Mbps.
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Honorable mentions with (sort of) unlimited data
These internet providers are not truly unlimited but either offer unlimited data options or won’t penalize you too harshly for going over your limit. While no data cap is ideal, these providers are a close second if you can’t get one of the providers listed above.
Hughesnet: Hughesnet has “no hard data caps.” What does that mean, exactly? Hughesnet plans now come with speeds of 50 to 100Mbps and a “priority data” limit of 100 to 200GB per month. If and once you exceed that limit, Hughesnet may lower your speeds for the remainder of your billing cycle to free bandwidth for folks who haven’t yet gone over theirs. There’s no overage fee, though, and you can add more data throughout the month if the slowed speeds are a nuisance.
Take our quiz
Streaming video, especially if it’s in HD or 4K. According to Netflix, streaming in standard definition can consume 1GB per hour, HD can eat up 3GB per hour and 4K can use as much as 7GB per hour. Let’s say you binge all 485 minutes of Squid Game in HD this month; that’ll add up to around 24GB of data.
There’s only so much bandwidth available, so providers may have to enforce data caps to keep everyone happy and connected. This is especially true with satellite internet technology, which has limited bandwidth. Consequently, you’ll find the lowest monthly data allowances, by far, with satellite internet service. In the case of DSL and cable internet providers, which often come with a data cap of around 1TB, if any, the providers largely just want to discourage excessive usage. If they were planning to make extra money in the form of overage fees, they’d lower the data cap from 1TB, which is typically far more than the average household will use.
If you have a 1TB data cap, the good news is that’s probably going to be more than enough for your needs. According to the latest OpenVault report, the average US household used 698GB of data per month in the fourth quarter of 2024, an increase of almost 9% from the same time last year. But even with the rise in data consumption among Americans, 1TB of data should be plenty for the average household.
There are a number of ways to reduce your internet data use, including streaming in standard definition as opposed to HD, downloading music or TV shows instead of streaming them repeatedly and disconnecting unused devices from your Wi-Fi network.
