What is a Good Upload Speed for Streaming? – The Ultimate Guide

It’s hard to become a world-class streamer if you’re always broadcasting your content with a low upload speed. While consuming content, such as watching a stream, you’re using downloaded data, if you’re the one sitting in front of a camera and streaming, you’ll be uploading data. With that in mind, we’re taking a look at what is a good upload speed for streaming in this guide and learning how to maximise what upload speed you may have available.

If you’re trying to learn how to increase upload speed for streaming, look no further than this guide. There are several things that you can do to ensure you’re putting out a high-quality stream, and one of them is making sure that your upload speed is relatively high. So, what is the best internet speed for live streaming that you should be aiming for? Let’s find out.

What Does It Take To Become a Good Streamer?

While having a good upload speed is pivotal to becoming a good streamer, there’s a lot more besides just that that you’ll need to do. For instance, you’ll need to be able to engage an audience and – more importantly – retain them. When a viewer enters your stream, you’ll need to engage them in conversation or wow them with your gameplay if you want them to hang around. There’s typically a path that’ll be followed by a long-term viewer, and you need to be able to keep up with that path:

A new viewer enters the stream and starts watching.
They enjoy the content so they give you a follow.
They come back for future streams, and eventually, they may subscribe.
If you have a community, they’ll most likely join it, particularly if that’s a Discord server.
They’ll become something of a fan, connecting with you on a regular basis for as long as they can.

So, if you fall short at any point in that path, such as not providing consistent content or failing to maintain your Discord server, you may lose that viewer. If you lose enough, then you’re no longer a good streamer. It’s about building a network, providing value to your viewers, building the best streaming setup, and learning how to be a professional content creator.

If you’re only just learning how to become a streamer, then that’s fine – you’ve got plenty of time to focus on what’s ahead.

What Is a Good Upload Speed for Streaming?

Let’s take a moment to explain what upload speed actually is:

Upload speed is the rate at which you transfer data from your device to the internet – and to the best live-streaming apps out there.

That’s essentially it, and while it can become complex if you want to look deeper, the fundamental concept is very easy to understand. When you’re streaming, you’re using broadcasting software to encode and upload data which is then sent across the internet and downloaded – or watched – by the end user (the viewer). For the most part, gamers worry more about download speed, as when it comes to installing games and playing multiplayer titles, that’s what’s more important.

If you’re learning how to stream on Twitch, you’ll need a minimum upload speed for streaming of approximately 4500 Kbps. This will ensure that you can put out a 720p stream, and if you want to go to 1080p, you’ll need a minimum upload stream of 6000 Kbps.

Let’s say you’re trying to learn how to live stream on YouTube. If you wanted to stream at the highest quality possible on YouTube, you’ll need an upload speed of 20 Mbps – a hefty requirement. That’s essentially going to guarantee that you can stream at a resolution of 2160p and at around 60 FPS.

At the bare minimum, in theory, you can stream with just 627 Kbps upload speed, and there really is no top end. If you have a 100 Mbps upload speed, then that’s fine – you can stream without any issues whatsoever.

How to Increase Upload Speed for Streaming

There are a few things that you can do to increase upload speed for streaming, but not everything is guaranteed to work. Here are a few top streaming tips that’ll help you boost your upload speed for streaming:

Move closer to your wireless router. If you’re not using a wired connection, then you’ll need to move closer to your wireless router, eliminating the distance between your device and your ISP’s router.
Use a wired connection. There are no stronger types of connection than a direct, wired internet connection. If you go this route, you’ll have the strongest upload and download speeds possible, without question.
Watch your household usage. If you’re trying to stream, make sure those that live in your home are aware of that. If you have multiple people streaming at once, or ten people watching Netflix all on their own devices, it’s going to sap your bandwidth and leave you with very little upload speed.

That’s basically everything you can do to increase your upload speed for streaming.

Learning what is a good upload speed for streaming is only the first step on the journey to becoming a streamer. It’s our recommendation that you leaf through our guides to streaming, learning everything you could possibly need to know about becoming a content creator.