Video calls
Video call speed requirements: Zoom, Teams and Google Meet compared
Short answer: a single 1080p video call needs about 3 to 4 Mbps in each direction. Most connections have plenty of download for that; the usual problems are a small upload, other people uploading at the same time, and latency that spikes when the line gets busy.
Test your upload and latency under load
What each app says it needs
| Call type | Zoom (up / down) | Microsoft Teams (up / down) | Google Meet (up / down) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audio only | 60–80 Kbps | 58 / 58 Kbps recommended | 100 / 100 Kbps |
| 1:1 video, HD | 1.2 Mbps each way (720p) | 1.5 / 1.5 Mbps recommended | up to 1.7 Mbps each way (720p) |
| 1:1 or group, 1080p | 3.8 / 3.0 Mbps (group) | 4.0 / 4.0 Mbps best performance | up to 3.6 Mbps each way |
| Group meeting | 720p: 2.6 / 1.8 Mbps | 2.5 / 4.0 Mbps recommended | 250 Kbps and up / up to 4.0 Mbps |
Sources: Zoom system requirements, Microsoft Learn, Prepare your network for Teams (per endpoint), Google Workspace, Prepare your network for Meet (figures for small organizations or individuals). All three vendors list upload first; Zoom, for example, gives 1080p as "3.8Mbps/3.0Mbps (up/down)".
How to read the table
- The apps adapt. Zoom says it optimises bandwidth based on the participant's network, and Microsoft says Teams prioritises audio over video when bandwidth runs short. Below these numbers, calls usually get blurrier before they drop.
- Multiply by people, not devices you own. Two people on 1080p calls at the same time need roughly double the upload. Joining the same meeting from a laptop and a phone counts as two endpoints, Microsoft notes.
- Screen sharing is cheap. Zoom lists 50–150 Kbps for screen sharing. A shared screen rarely breaks a call; a webcam on a weak upload does.
Your speed test says enough, but calls still freeze
Throughput is only half of it. Microsoft lists the typical symptoms and causes: calls that drop (often firewall or proxy problems), and voices that "sound like robots", which it attributes to jitter or packet loss. Three things to check:
- Latency under load. Run our test and compare idle latency with latency under load. A big jump means your router is buffering too much when the line is busy, so a family member's upload makes your call lag. A router with smart queue management (SQM) fixes this far more reliably than a faster plan.
- Wi-Fi band. Google recommends forcing clients onto 5 GHz where possible and not running Meet over the crowded 2.4 GHz band. Microsoft makes the same point for Teams.
- VPN. Both Microsoft and Google advise keeping call traffic off the VPN (split tunnelling), because VPNs add latency and some don't carry UDP well.
A quick household check
Count the most calls that might happen at once and multiply by about 3.5 to 4 Mbps of upload each for 1080p, then compare with the upload you measure. If the total is close to your upload, expect trouble whenever a phone backs up photos at the same time. The household calculator does this sum for you.
Related
Why upload speed is so often the problem · How we measure latency under load