What’s The Best Internet for Netflix?

Thursday, August 24, 2023

Frequent lagging and buffering can absolutely ruin your Netflix watching experience. To avoid these issues, you need a fast, reliable internet connection.

What kind of internet is best if you watch a lot of Netflix? Here's what you need to know about how fast your internet needs to be, and what your options are.

What are Netflix's internet speed requirements?

If you're looking for the best internet option for heavy Netflix usage, the company's own internet speed recommendations are a solid place to start.

Netflix officially recommends the following speeds:

• HD (720p): 3 Mbps
• Full HD (1080p): 5 Mbps
• Ultra HD (4K): 15 Mbps

Frankly, you may find yourself wondering if they forgot a zero, at least on those first two. These recommendations are very bare-bones. Theoretically, you could probably stream at 3-5 Mbps - which is a very low speed by modern standards - with just one device connected to the internet, with just Netflix playing, and nothing else.

But realistically, you're going to want an internet connection with more power under the hood than that.

A more realistic rundown of internet speeds for Netflix

Here's a more thorough - and probably more realistic - rundown of different levels of internet speed, and how it affects your ability to watch things on Netflix.

• 5 Mbps - Very slow connection, might be okay for one 720p stream but no other data use
• 25 Mbps - A more reasonable lowest minimum. Can cover one stream in HD or Full HD, plus some other light browsing.
• 100 Mbps - This is getting into where your speeds are genuinely sufficient for streaming on Netflix without buffering or other issues. If you have multiple devices connected and are using a lot of data, you could potentially run into buffering with 4K content, though.
• 300 Mbps - This is a great speed for HD and UHD streaming, including more than one stream at once. (Such as if you live with family or roommates who also want to watch Netflix at the same time.)
• 1 Gig - This is the cream of the crop as far as attainable home internet speeds. Fidium@Home packages can offer up to 2 Gigs for the highest tier. At this level, you're not going to run into any issues with buffering or lag, even if you're streaming in 4K.

The bottom line? We'd recommend an internet package that can offer speeds of at least 100 Mbps, with 200-300 Mbps preferable if you can get it. The more speed, the better.

What's the best type of internet connection for Netflix?

When it comes to streaming content on Netflix, it's all about speed and latency. Of all the different kinds of internet connection that are available on the market today - fiber, cable, DSL, 5G, satellite - fiber is far and away the fastest.

If you're a heavy Netflix user - especially if you like to stream in 4K - fiber optic internet is the way to go for a smooth streaming experience.

What's the best internet plan for Netflix?

As we've mentioned, you really want speeds of at least 100-200 Mbps to guarantee smooth, lag-free streaming on Netflix, especially for higher definition content.

Fidium@Home offers four different service plans, all of which offer more than enough speed to handle high-intensity Netflix streaming:

• Essential: 50 Mbps
• Advanced: 250 Mbps
• Supreme: 1 Gig
• Futuristic: 2 Gigs

For Netflix, the Advanced plan comes highly recommended. You may also want to consider opting for the Supreme package instead, especially for high-data-use households.

Fidium's pricing varies by geographic location.

Fiber internet is a top option for a smooth Netflix streaming experience

If you want to get the best possible Netflix experience, fiber optic internet is your best choice. With significantly higher speeds than cable, plus better overall reliability, having a fiber connection can make lagging and buffering a thing of the past.