What internet speed do you need for YouTube?

YouTube recommends a sustained 5 Mbps for 1080p HD and 20 Mbps for 4K. Lower resolutions need less: 2.5 Mbps for 720p and about 1 Mbps for 480p. Those are per video, so add them up if several people watch at once.

YouTube calls these approximate figures. It adapts quality to your connection, so a slower line still plays video; it just picks a lower resolution.

What "sustained" means here

The table above lists speeds you need to hold for the whole video, not a peak you hit once. A connection that tests at 25 Mbps but drops to 8 Mbps every few minutes won't hold 4K. YouTube will step down to 1080p or lower to avoid buffering.

That's why a single speed test reading can be misleading. If 4K keeps falling back, run a few tests at the time you usually watch, in the room you watch in. Our Wi-Fi speed test guide explains how to test where it counts.

YouTube's help page also gives an absolute floor: 500 Kbps or more just to play videos at all.

Speeds YouTube doesn't list

YouTube's table stops at 4K and doesn't give figures for 1440p, 8K, high frame rates or HDR. These use more data than the resolution below them, but YouTube doesn't publish a number, so we won't invent one. If you watch 1440p or 8K, plan on more than the 4K figure and test whether it holds.

Several screens at once

Each video stream needs its own share. Two 4K TVs and a phone on 1080p need about 20 + 20 + 5 = 45 Mbps, before anyone else in the house does anything. Add some headroom on top for downloads, calls and the margin Wi-Fi takes. A 200 Mbps plan handles a household like that with plenty to spare.

Why YouTube drops to a lower quality

When the picture goes soft or the resolution label falls, one of these is usually behind it:

• Auto quality. YouTube picks a resolution based on your connection and screen size. On a phone or a small window, it may choose 720p even on a fast line.
• Weak Wi-Fi. The TV or streaming stick is often the furthest device from the router. Moving it to 5 GHz or using Ethernet often fixes 4K on its own.
• Busy evenings. Your speed can dip at peak times. If YouTube is fine in the morning and soft at night, test at both times.
• Mobile data savers. Phone plans and the YouTube app can cap video quality on cellular data. Check the app's video quality settings and your carrier's plan details. Testing mobile data speed tells you what the network is actually giving you.
• Video traffic management. Some providers slow video on certain plans. Signs of ISP throttling covers how to spot it.

You can choose a fixed quality from the gear icon on a video. If it buffers at that setting, your connection isn't sustaining the speed above.

How to see what YouTube is getting

On a computer, right-click a playing video and choose "Stats for nerds". It shows the current resolution, connection speed and buffer health. If buffer health keeps falling toward zero, the video is arriving slower than it plays.

Then run the SpeedMetric speed test on the same device. If the result is well above the figure for your chosen resolution but YouTube still struggles, the bottleneck is likely Wi-Fi in that room or the route to YouTube's servers rather than your plan. Why your internet is slow walks through the next checks.

How much data YouTube can use

Data use follows speed. At YouTube's 1080p recommendation of 5 Mbps, an hour works out to at most about 5 × 3,600 ÷ 8 = 2,250 MB, roughly 2.25 GB per hour. At the 4K rate of 20 Mbps, it's up to about 9 GB per hour. Treat those as upper estimates: real streams vary with the video and often use less than the recommended speed. If you have a data cap, setting a lower default quality is the easiest saving.