500Mbps Download Speed: How Fast Is 500Mbps & What Can You Do With It? (2024)

A download speed of 500Mbps allows you to stream ultra-HD video on 20 devices at the same time, or download a HD movie in 1 minute.

If you’re using a broadband internet connection with download speeds of 500Mbps, you can comfortably stream ultra-HD quality video on up to 20 devices at the same time. Alternatively, you can download an entire music album in around 1 second or a HD-quality movie in about 1 minute (increasing to 5 minutes if you’re downloading a movie in 4K ultra-HD quality).

Broadband plans with an average download speed around 500Mbps include Virgin Media's M500 Fibre, BT’s Full Fibre 500 and Sky’s Ultrafast Plus. There are also 500Mbps plans from ISPs like Hyperoptic and Vodafone.

In this article, we’ll look at what you can do on a 500Mbps connection, including for online video, music, gaming, video calls and general web browsing. We’ll also look at download times on a 500Mbps connection and at how much you’ll typically need to pay for 500Mbps broadband at different ISPs.

How Fast Is 500Mbps?

A 500Mbps broadband connection is faster than the UK’s average home broadband service which has a download speed of 63Mbps.

With a download speed of 500Mbps, you can do almost anything you’d like to do at the same time on the internet, on multiple devices at the same time. For instance, you can watch online video on 20 devices at the same time in ultra-HD (4K) quality. This increases to 100 devices at the same time if you’re watching in full HD (1080p) quality.

With a 500Mbps connection, you can also download files fairly quickly. For instance, a music album will download in around 1 second and a HD-quality movie will download in about 1 minute. Browsing the internet and receiving emails should be near-instantaneous on a 500Mbps connection.

Streaming & Other Activities

If you’re using a 500Mbps broadband connection, it will support almost anything you’d like to do online. This includes browsing the web, making video calls, listening to music and watching video online on multiple devices at the same time.

In the following table, we’ve listed a number of online activities and the minimum speed required for each one. We’ve also listed the number of devices you’d be able to use at the same time when accessing these services through a 500Mbps connection.

For instance, watching online video in ultra-HD (4K) quality would require a download speed of 25Mbps on each device. You can therefore watch on up to 20 devices at the same time if you have a 500Mbps connection.

For some activities like general web browsing and online music, there's no real limit to the number of devices you can use at the same time. In theory, things would still work on more than 100 devices at the same time when using a 500Mbps broadband connection. In reality, however, you might reach the limit of your home wi-fi network, which can start slowing down when you have lots of devices connected at the same time.

Download Times

With a download speed of 500Mbps, you can download an entire music album in about 1 second. It will take 1 minute to download a HD-quality film (1080p quality) and about 5 minutes to download an ultra-HD quality movie (4K quality).

The following table shows the expected download time for multiple different types of file on a 500Mbps connection:

Typical file sizes used for our calculations: 85MB for a music album, 1GB for a standard-definition movie, 4GB for a full-HD quality movie, 20GB for a 4K Ultra HD quality movie, 45GB for a PlayStation or Xbox console game, 30MB for an iPhone or Android mobile application and 2MB for a high-quality photograph.

If you’re calculating the download time for another file, it’s important to remember that 500Mbps stands for 500 Megabits per second (where 8 Megabits are equal to one MegaByte). For this reason, if you’re downloading a 500MB (500 MegaByte) file, it will take you 8 seconds to do this and not one second.

Home Network Considerations

If your broadband connection has a 500Mbps download speed, this refers to the speed at your router or hub. This may be different from the actual speed on your individual devices.

If you're connecting to the internet over wi-fi, the download speed on individual devices may be slower than 500Mbps. This is often due to poor wi-fi or congestion from other networks. This will stop you from getting the full potential of your broadband service. For instance, you might experience buffering when watching videos online due to poor wi-fi, even if your broadband connection is able to support it.

Where possible, you should use a wired Ethernet connection to get the fastest available speeds. If you're not able to do this, look at ways to improve the wi-fi signal in your home. Getting a wi-fi repeater or a mesh wi-fi system such as BT Whole Home Wi-Fi or Google Wi-Fi can be a highly effective way of improving speeds on your home wi-fi network.

How Much Does 500Mbps Broadband Cost?

In the UK, it’s currently possible to get 500Mbps broadband with prices starting from £23/month. However, not all of the services are likely to be available at your address, so you’ll need to check the availability of different services at your address.

Broadband plans with an average download speed around 500Mbps include Virgin Media's M500 Fibre, BT’s Full Fibre 500 and Sky’s Ultrafast Plus. There are also 500Mbps plans from ISPs like Hyperoptic and Vodafone.

The following table shows 500Mbps broadband plans:

Other Download Speeds

The cost and availability of different home broadband services depends on the download speed you’re able to get.

The following table shows how much you'd need to pay for a broadband service with different download speeds. It also shows the percentage availability amongst UK households:

If you’re unable to get a 500Mbps connection where you live, there are lots of alternative providers offering average download speeds of 63-67Mbps. This is slower than a 500Mbps connection, but prices start from just £24/month and about 95% of UK homes are able to get this service:

More Information

For more information, see our in-depth guides on download speed and upload speed. You can also read our other home broadband guides, including our review of all the major UK broadband internet providers.