Compare family internet plans by speed and cost.
Household bandwidth is the sum of concurrent demands, not the sum of devices. A 4K stream needs about 25 Mbps, an HD video call about 5, online gaming around 15 for comfortable margin, and every other connected device a couple of Mbps for background updates and sync. Adding 20 Mbps of general overhead covers the bursts. On these defaults a family needs roughly 107 Mbps, which means a 200 Mbps plan is comfortable and a 100 Mbps plan is not. Two caveats: gaming cares far more about latency and jitter than raw speed, and upload matters for video calls and cloud backup, which is where cable plans with 10 or 20 Mbps upstream disappoint.
Family Internet Plan
Required Mbps = 4K streams x 25 + video calls x 5 + gaming devices x 15 + other devices x 2 + 20 overhead; headroom = plan speed - required
Around 100-150 Mbps covers two 4K streams, two video calls, gaming and a dozen background devices. Beyond about 300 Mbps most households see no difference in daily use.
Usually upload speed, latency or Wi-Fi rather than download bandwidth. A 500 Mbps cable plan with 20 Mbps upload will still struggle with simultaneous video calls and cloud backup.