Small Business Internet Speed Calculator

It depends on your number of employees and what you use the connection for. As a broad planning estimate, a small office of 10-15 people doing general browsing, email, some video calls and cloud backup typically needs somewhere in the 100-200 Mbps download range with a similar or higher upload requirement if backup and video use is heavy — this calculator works out your specific figure.

Download speed covers things you receive (web pages, video streams, incoming files). Upload speed covers things you send (video call feeds, cloud backups, uploading files). Many standard broadband products are asymmetric — much faster download than upload — which can be a problem for offices doing a lot of video calling or cloud backup.

Because upload is often the real bottleneck for small offices, not download. Cloud backup and video conferencing both push a lot of traffic outbound, and many affordable broadband packages offer far less upload than download capacity.

It's headroom added on top of your calculated baseline to allow for business growth and for everyone hitting peak usage, such as an all-hands video call, at the same time. 30% is a commonly used starting point; adjust it up if your usage varies a lot, or down if your team rarely all work at once.

If your total recommended download stays under about 67 Mbps and upload under about 20 Mbps, standard broadband (including fibre to the cabinet) will often be enough. Above that, full fibre is recommended, and very high or upload-heavy requirements point toward a dedicated leased line.

A leased line is a dedicated, business-only internet connection with guaranteed speed in both directions and a service-level agreement. It costs more than standard broadband but suits businesses with very high, upload-heavy, or business-critical connectivity needs.

Group HD video conferencing commonly needs somewhere around 3-4 Mbps per participant in each direction, though the exact figure depends on the platform, video quality setting, and number of people in the call. This calculator uses a representative planning figure based on common vendor-published guidance.

Yes — backing up files to the cloud is an upload-heavy task since you are sending data out, not receiving it. If several devices sync large files at once, this can be one of the biggest upload demands in a small office.

Roughly 0.1 Mbps (100 kbps) per active call in each direction is a standard planning figure for business VoIP, though quality and reliability also depend on low latency and low packet loss, not just raw speed.

Yes. Tick the activities you expect to use and enter a reasonable estimate for each — you can always come back and adjust the numbers once you have a clearer picture of daily usage.

No. Speed and reliability are different things. A connection can have high advertised speed but still suffer dropouts or high latency. For business-critical connectivity, ask providers about uptime guarantees and support response times, not just headline speed.

No. This tool estimates the speed tier your business needs; it does not compare specific providers, prices, or contracts. Use your recommended figures to compare quotes from providers serving your area.

No. This is an independent planning estimate based on common industry bandwidth guidance. It is not an official assessment from Ofcom, your internet service provider, or any regulator.

No. All calculations run locally in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded, stored, or shared.

Yes. Use the Copy Results, Print Results, or Download PDF actions to save your recommended speed, breakdown, and assessment for your own records or to share with an IT provider.