"Get as much speed as you can afford" is bad advice \xE2\x80\x94 you can overpay for bandwidth you'll never use, or underbuy and throttle your team. Here's how to size it sensibly.
Start With People and Activity
Bandwidth needs scale with the number of simultaneous users and what they're doing. A rough way to think about per-user demand:
- Light use (email, web, occasional calls): ~1\xE2\x80\x933 Mbps per person.
- Standard office (cloud apps, regular video calls): ~5\xE2\x80\x9310 Mbps per person.
- Heavy use (constant video, large uploads, big file transfers): 10\xE2\x80\x9325+ Mbps per person.
Multiply by the number of people online at peak, then add headroom.
Don't Forget Upload
Video conferencing, VoIP, and cloud backups all consume upload. If you do a lot of these, prioritize a connection with strong upload \xE2\x80\x94 often a symmetrical fiber plan. See why upload speed matters.
Rule of thumb: size for your busy hour, not your average, and leave 20\xE2\x80\x9330% headroom for growth and spikes. Running a circuit at 100% during peak feels slow even if the "average" looks fine.
Account for the Background Load
Beyond people, factor in always-on consumers: security cameras streaming offsite, automatic cloud backups, software updates, VoIP phones, and guest Wi-Fi. These quietly eat capacity around the clock.
When to Buy Dedicated
If consistent performance matters more than a big headline number \xE2\x80\x94 for example, you run payments or heavy voice \xE2\x80\x94 a smaller dedicated circuit with guaranteed bandwidth can outperform a larger best-effort plan. The right size is the one that fits your real usage with room to grow, not the biggest you can buy.
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