5G vs 4G: how much faster is 5G really?

Mid-band 5G is roughly four to five times faster than 4G LTE in typical use. Verizon lists its 5G Ultra Wideband phone speeds at 163–622 Mbps download, against 35–148 Mbps on its mixed 5G/4G LTE network. Low-band 5G, the kind that often shows a plain "5G" icon, can feel no faster than 4G at all.

So "5G" alone doesn't tell you much. The band your phone is using, and how far you are from the tower, decide the speed.

Typical 5G and 4G speeds compared

Carriers rarely publish typical speeds, but Verizon does on its network performance page. For phones on most plans:

Network	Typical download	Typical upload	Typical latency
5G Ultra Wideband	163–622 Mbps	9–48 Mbps	35–55 ms
5G/4G LTE (mixed)	35–148 Mbps	5–33 Mbps	43–85 ms

Dividing one by the other: 163 ÷ 35 ≈ 4.7 at the low end, and 622 ÷ 148 ≈ 4.2 at the high end. That's where "four to five times faster" comes from. Verizon also notes peak download speeds over 2 Gbps in some areas on 5G Ultra Wideband, though typical is the number to plan around.

Verizon reports its ordinary 5G and 4G LTE together, because phones use both at once, often in the same session. That's a reminder that low-band 5G and LTE behave alike in practice.

Upload improves too, but from a lower base. The top of the 5G Ultra Wideband upload range is 48 Mbps, so mobile upload rarely matches the download number.

The three kinds of 5G

5G runs on three groups of radio frequencies, and each trades speed for coverage:

• Low-band 5G reaches far and gets through buildings well, but has little capacity. Speeds are often close to 4G LTE. Many phones show this as plain "5G".
• Mid-band 5G is the sweet spot: much faster than LTE, with decent coverage across a city. Most of what carriers market as their fast 5G runs here.
• Millimeter wave (mmWave) is extremely fast but has very short range and is blocked easily by walls, glass, and even your hand. It's mostly found in dense downtown areas, stadiums and airports.

Carriers label their faster 5G with their own icons: Verizon uses 5G UW, T-Mobile uses 5G UC and AT&T uses 5G+. If your phone shows one of those, you're on mid-band or mmWave. If it shows plain 5G, expect speeds closer to LTE.

Is 5G latency lower?

A little, in typical use. Verizon's figures put 5G Ultra Wideband at 35–55 ms and the mixed 5G/4G network at 43–85 ms. That's a useful improvement for video calls and online games, but it's not the near-instant response you may have seen in 5G marketing. Real-world latency also includes the trip from the carrier's network to the server you're talking to.

As a rule of thumb, under about 50 ms feels responsive for most uses. What is a good ping? explains the thresholds for gaming and calls.

When 5G won't feel faster

Several things cap your speed no matter which network icon you see:

• Video limits on your plan. Verizon, for one, says it sends video to smartphones at 480p or 720p depending on the plan. A faster network doesn't raise that cap.
• Signal strength. Indoors, or at the edge of a mid-band cell, your phone may fall back to low-band 5G or LTE.
• Busy towers. Speeds drop at peak times when many people share the same cell.
• Deprioritization. Some plans get lower priority when a tower is congested, or after a monthly data threshold.
• Your phone. Older 5G phones may not support every band your carrier uses.

If your mobile data feels slow even on 5G, why is my mobile data slow? walks through these one at a time.

What's a good 5G speed?

For a phone, anything above about 25 Mbps handles HD video, video calls and app downloads comfortably. Above 100 Mbps, most people won't notice the difference in everyday use. Treat those as rules of thumb: a phone streams one video at a time, so it needs far less than a whole household does.

If you're considering 5G as your home internet, the bar is higher because every device in the house shares it. 5G home internet speed covers what to expect there, and average internet speed in the US shows how 5G compares with wired broadband.

How to test 5G vs 4G on your phone

1. Turn off Wi-Fi so the test uses mobile data.
2. Note the network icon at the top of the screen.
3. Run the SpeedMetric speed test in your browser and note download, upload and ping.
4. Move outdoors or near a window and test again. The icon and result often change together.
5. To compare with 4G directly, switch your phone to LTE only in its mobile network settings, test, then switch back.

Run each test two or three times, since mobile results swing more than home broadband. Mobile data speed test has more tips for getting a fair reading on a phone.