Best Internet Providers in Austin

Austin likes keeping it weird, but ask anyone who works and lives there: They also like their internet fast. In fact, they’re in one of the fastest cities in the country when it comes to internet speed. Thanks to its multiple fiber options, Austin has a spot in the top 10 fastest cities in the USA.
The speed-testing site Ookla keeps track of the top cities in the US for median download speeds based on millions of tests run daily by the company. In Ookla’s second-quarter 2022 report, Austin — the country’s 28th most populous metro area — ranked as the seventh fastest city, registering a median download speed of nearly 214 megabits per second. That was good enough to place ATX well ahead of its Texan big-city siblings Dallas and Houston.
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One thing to note about those speeds: Austin gets a boost from the fast fiber options found within city limits, including AT&T and Google Fiber, and the wide availability of the consistent cable connection provided by Spectrum. But if you venture beyond Travis County to Round Rock, Georgetown or some rural areas east of Austin, you won’t see anything close to those median speeds. Apart from last-resort satellite options like HughesNet and Viasat, there are some regional fixed wireless solutions, as well as the option to explore 5G home internet (though availability is limited more closely to the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown hub).
That means you’ve got plenty of internet options to sort through in the Austin area. Whatever those options may be at your address, we’re here to help you comb through your choices. Here’s what you need to know about the best internet providers in Austin.
Sarah Tew/CNET Price range: $70 to $100 a month
$70 to $100 a month Speed range: 1,000 to 2,000Mbps
1,000 to 2,000Mbps Highlights: Unlimited data, no contracts, equipment included Admittedly, this was a tough call. AT&T was nipping at the heels of Google Fiber. But not all Austin residents are serviceable for AT&T Fiber. Many still have to deal with AT&T’s DSL service, an inferior product whose download speeds max out around 100Mbps, and in some areas, tops out at only around 25Mbps. Conversely, if you have access to Google Fiber, you know exactly what you will get — 100% fiber-optic internet service with symmetrical download and upload speeds. Google Fiber features only two plans — 1,000Mbps and 2,000Mbps — but each has fast internet speeds, no data caps, no contracts and no additional equipment rental fee. Google Fiber may not be your top selection if you’re looking for a cheap internet option. Still, in terms of value, Google Fiber stands tall: The gigabit plan at $70 a month has an affordable cost per Mbps of seven cents, while the two gig plan boasts an even better 5 cents per Mbps. As for where you can find Google Fiber in Austin, your best bet is in the heart of ATX, including the South Lamar, South Congress and East Austin neighborhoods. But service is also beginning to extend towards the north portion of the city, including the Allandale, Mueller, North Loop and North Shoal Creek neighborhoods. Read our Google Fiber home internet review.
Sarah Tew/CNET Price range: $50 to $90 a month
$50 to $90 a month Speed range: 300 to 940Mbps
300 to 940Mbps Highlights: Simple pricing, no contracts, no data caps, free access to nationwide Wi-Fi hotspots
Simple pricing, no contracts, no data caps, free access to nationwide Wi-Fi hotspots Special offers: Bundle discounts, free Peacock Premium for up to 12 months Charter Communications’ broadband service covers a large swath of the Austin city limits and beyond, including down into Kyle and Dripping Springs and up north into Pflugerville, Round Rock and Leander. That’s especially helpful if you plan to move within the area and don’t want the hassle of setting up with a new service provider. The company’s home internet service also includes the modem in the monthly costs (though you’ll need to add $5 a month if you want a Wi-Fi router). Also in Spectrum’s favor is its straightforward approach. No matter where you’re located, you’ll have three plan options — 300, 500 or 940Mbps download speed — and no fear of additional fees from overage charges since there are no data limits. While its upload speeds top out at 35Mbps (which falls well short of what fiber internet can achieve), Spectrum’s reliability compared to the more spotty DSL and satellite internet services that are also prevalent in the area is tough to overstate. Read our Spectrum home internet review. Spectrum Internet Edit You’re receiving price alerts for Spectrum Internet
Sarah Tew/CNET Price range: $50 a month ($30 for eligible T-Mobile Magenta Max customers)
$50 a month ($30 for eligible T-Mobile Magenta Max customers) Speed range: 33 to 182Mbps
33 to 182Mbps Highlights: No data cap, no contracts, all-inclusive price (no additional fee for equipment or extra charges)
No data cap, no contracts, all-inclusive price (no additional fee for equipment or extra charges) Special offers: 15-day Test Drive, Price Lock guarantee, free one-year subscription to Paramount Plus, $10 off per month on Philo TV for a year, T-Mobile Tuesdays (weekly perks) T-Mobile and Verizon have been pushing hard for their 5G internet services, but T-Mobile Home Internet gets the nod here for the Live Music Capital of the World. A MoffettNathanson report from April used Comlinkdata to surmise that approximately a third of T-Mobile Home Internet subscribers are from rural areas, even though less than 10% of the company’s current footprint is rural. So, T-Mobile Home Internet, in just over a year of business, is becoming a viable option for many where DSL or satellite had been the only choices. While you’ll find the Austin area included in T-Mobile’s coverage list for Texas, you’ll still need to confirm it’s serviceable at your location. You can plug in your address (or your mobile phone number, if you’re already a T-Mobile customer) on the T-Mobile Home Internet site to find out if it’s available for you. Read our T-Mobile Home Internet overview.
Internet providers in Austin overview
Astound Broadband/Grande AT&T Google Fiber Rise Broadband Spectrum Internet technology Cable DSL/fiber Fiber Fixed wireless Cable Monthly price range $26-$60 $55-$180 $70-$100 $25-$75 $50-$90 Speed range 300-1,200Mbps 10-5,000Mbps 1,000-2,000Mbps 25-50Mbps 300-940Mbps Monthly equipment costs $12 (skippable) None None $10 modem; $5-$15 router (skippable) Free modem; $5 router Data cap None None None 250GB or Unlimited None Contract None None None None, but required for some promotions None CNET review score 7.0 7.4 7.4 6.2 7.2
Are there additional internet providers in Austin?
Many broadband options exist for those living in the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown metro area. Beyond the top three picks we highlighted above, you can find quite a mix of choices, though a few are available only on the outskirts of the surrounding counties.
Astound Broadband/Grande : You’ll find some of the most competitive starting rates in Austin from this cable internet provider. Astound’s cheapest plan is $26 a month for 300Mbps download speed. That’s a very affordable 9 cents per Mbps. While you can find a less expensive option in the area — Rise Broadband’s $25-a-month offering, for example — that plan features download speeds of only 25Mbps, which equates to a much higher cost per Mbps of $1. Astound’s gig plan is also the cheapest you can find in the city, starting at $50 a month, and comes with a free year of HBO Max According to Astound’s rate card, your rate could almost triple after a year (from $26 to $78 a month for the 300Mbps plan). Granted, you’re not under a contract, so you have the freedom to try to negotiate a better deal
: You’ll find some of the most competitive starting rates in Austin from this cable internet provider. Astound’s cheapest plan is $26 a month for 300Mbps download speed. That’s a very affordable 9 cents per Mbps. While you can find a less expensive option in the area — Rise Broadband’s $25-a-month offering, for example — that plan features download speeds of only 25Mbps, which equates to a much higher cost per Mbps of $1. Astound’s gig plan is also the cheapest you can find in the city, starting at $50 a month, and comes with a free year of According to Astound’s rate card, your rate could almost triple after a year (from $26 to $78 a month for the 300Mbps plan). Granted, you’re not under a contract, so you have the freedom to AT&T multi-gigabit plans
CenturyLink
Evolve Broadband: This regional provider won’t be found within city limits, but its LTE fixed wireless service caters to rural customers in the outskirts of the Austin metro area, including to the south and southeast in Bastrop, Cedar Creek, Dale and Lytton Springs and west of the city in McDade and Paige. You can expect 10 to 35Mbps download speed with this cellular service, which Evolve breaks down into three data plans — Bronze (10GB per month for $40), Silver ($50 a month for 30GB) and Gold (60GB a month for $75) with the opportunity to buy additional gigabytes of data on each plan.
Visions of America/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Are there additional details about Austin home internet to know?
After our overview of the internet service providers available in Austin, you may have some more specific questions about the internet plans you can get in the Capital City. Specifically, let’s dive into more about the cheapest internet plans you can find and the fastest internet options available.
Pricing for Austin home internet service
The average starting price for internet service in Austin — taking into account the promo prices, not the elevated regular rates — is approximately $43 per month, which puts ATX right in the middle of the pack of the other markets CNET has covered to this point, including Brooklyn ($36 a month), Los Angeles ($38 a month), Denver ($39 per month), San Francisco ($40 a month), New York City ($41 per month), Seattle ($42 monthly), Dallas and Philadelphia (both near $43 per month), Houston ($45 monthly), Phoenix ($46 per month), Atlanta ($47 monthly), Orlando ($48 a month) and Charlotte, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Diego and St. Louis (all approximately $50 monthly).
Currently, the lowest starting price you can find in Austin belongs to Rise Broadband, which has a 25Mbps plan starting at $25 a month. Impressively, the standard price only jumps by $10 after the first year.
That said, I have to bring up a plan I mentioned earlier: For just a dollar more (at $26 per month in the first year), Astound Broadband has a 300Mbps cable internet plan. If it’s available at your address, that’s the best value.
Speaking of value, most of the providers we’ve listed are also participating in the Federal Communication Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program. This FCC initiative provides a $30-a-month discount to qualifying low-income households to help them find affordable, high-speed internet. If you qualify, the ACP benefit can be used towards any internet plan from participating providers. In some cases, especially from the 20 providers who recently partnered with the White House on its digital divide initiatives, you might be able to get internet service for free.
What’s the cheapest internet in Austin? Provider Starting price Standard price Max download speed Monthly equipment fee Contract Rise Broadband $25 $35 25Mbps $10 modem; $5-$15 router (skippable) None, but required for some promotions Astound Broadband/Grande $26 $78 300Mbps $15 (skippable) None Kinetic by Windstream $27 $55 50Mbps $10 (skippable) None Ranch Wireless $30 $30 1Mbps $249 one-time fee None Frontier $33 $50 9Mbps None None Optimum $40 $110 300Mbps None None Evolve Broadband $40 $40 25Mbps $30-$75 one-time fee 1-2 years TexasData $40 $40 2Mbps $69 one-time fee
HughesNet $45 $65 25Mbps $15 or $450 one-time purchase 2 years CenturyLink $49 $49 200Mbps $15 (skippable) None T-Mobile Home Internet $50 $50 182Mbps None None Spectrum $50 $75 300Mbps Free modem; $5 router None Verizon 5G Home Internet $50 $50 300Mbps None None Viasat $50 $70 12Mbps $13 or $299 one-time purchase 2 years AT&T Fiber 300 $55 $55 300Mbps None None SOS Communications $60 $60 10Mbps None None Google Fiber $70 $70 1,000Mbps None None
Internet speeds in Austin
As I mentioned at the start of this article, Austin holds some bragging rights as one of the country’s fastest cities in terms of median download internet speeds. If you live on the outskirts of the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown metro area, you might be surprised to hear that since fixed wireless or satellite service might be all that’s available to you. But people within the city limits have access to the superior speeds of fiber internet service, tilting the scales here. Case in point, Ookla’s data tags Google Fiber as the fastest provider in Austin, with a median download speed of over 247Mbps.
What are the fastest internet plans in Austin? Provider Starting price Max download speed Max upload speed Data cap Contract AT&T Fiber 5000 $180 5,000Mbps 5,000Mbps None None Google Fiber 2 Gig $100 2,000Mbps 1,000Mbps None None AT&T Fiber 2000 $110 2,000Mbps 2,000Mbps None None Frontier FiberOptic 2 Gig $150 2,000Mbps 2,000Mbps None None Astound Broadband/Grande $60 1,200Mbps 50Mbps None None Google Fiber Gig $70 1,000Mbps 1,000Mbps None None AT&T Fiber 1000 $80 1,000Mbps 1,000Mbps None None Astound Broadband/Grande $50 940Mbps 50Mbps None None Optimum Gig $50 940Mbps 35Mbps None None CenturyLink $65 940Mbps 940Mbps None None Spectrum Internet Gig $90 940Mbps 35Mbps None None
What’s the bottom line on Austin internet providers?
Within the city limits of Austin, cable internet is still the most ubiquitous internet connection you’ll find. And as far as cable internet providers go, Spectrum and Astound Broadband present solid value with their offerings. But as we’ve often mentioned in our CNET home internet coverage, fiber internet trumps cable every time. If your address is serviceable for Google Fiber or AT&T Fiber — and thankfully, both companies are continuing to expand their fiber networks within ATX — then you shouldn’t give signing up a second thought.
Austin internet FAQs
Which is the best internet service provider in Austin? If you consider the greater Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown area, there are at least 17 different internet service providers available to the more than 2 million people living in the ATX metro. Those residents aren’t serviceable for all 17 ISPs, so sometimes, the best internet service provider is simply the available one. In Austin, the providers with the widest availability — outside of satellite providers — are AT&T and Spectrum.
Are there fiber internet providers in Austin? Yes. AT&T is perhaps the most widely available provider in the area, and although not all addresses can get its fiber service (DSL is still prevalent), access to AT&T Fiber throughout the area is growing. Google Fiber is also available within city limits.