Why the speeds on the box are a fantasy
Router boxes shout 4.8 Gbps for Wi-Fi 6 and 46 Gbps for Wi-Fi 7. Those are laboratory PHY rates: the raw radio bitrate measured with a perfect signal, zero interference, and every spatial stream maxed out. They are not speeds a real home can expect.
In practice, actual throughput lands at roughly 55 to 65 percent of that headline figure once protocol overhead, encryption, and airtime shared with neighbouring networks are taken into account. Each wall between the router and the device shaves off about another 10 percent. A "5.8 Gbps" Wi-Fi 7 claim can easily become about 2 Gbps in the next room: still fast, but nowhere near the box. And one hard ceiling applies to everything: Wi-Fi can never deliver more than your internet plan. On a 500 Mbps plan, every standard maxes out at 500 Mbps, and the router's headline number is irrelevant.
What actually decides your Wi-Fi speed
Four factors determine the throughput a device really gets:
- Channel width — 80, 160 or 320 MHz. Wider channels carry more data. Wi-Fi 6 tops out at 160 MHz; only Wi-Fi 7 supports 320 MHz channels.
- Spatial streams — 1x1, 2x2, 3x3 or 4x4. Most phones and laptops are 2x2, while a cheap smart plug may be 1x1. Throughput multiplies by the streams of your device, not the router.
- Walls and distance — roughly 10 percent throughput lost per wall, plus the usual drop-off with distance.
- Your internet plan — the absolute cap. Everything above is capped at whatever the ISP delivers to your router.
Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 7: the per-stream numbers
Each standard has a fixed top rate per spatial stream at a given channel width. Wi-Fi 6 — and Wi-Fi 6E, which shares the same radio math — delivers about 573.6 Mbps per stream on an 80 MHz channel and 1201 Mbps on 160 MHz, and cannot use 320 MHz channels at all. Wi-Fi 7 reaches roughly 1147 Mbps per stream at 80 MHz, 2294 Mbps at 160 MHz and 5765 Mbps at 320 MHz, thanks to 4096-QAM and wider channels.
| Standard | 80 MHz per stream | 160 MHz per stream | 320 MHz per stream |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi 6 / 6E | ~574 Mbps | ~1201 Mbps | Not supported |
| Wi-Fi 7 | ~1147 Mbps | ~2294 Mbps | ~5765 Mbps |
The 65-percent rule: real throughput ≈ per-stream rate × your device's streams × 0.65, minus roughly 10% per wall, capped at your internet plan. Run any quoted figure through this formula before believing a speed claim.
A worked example: both standards, one home
Take a common setup: a 160 MHz channel, a 2x2 phone, no walls, and a 500 Mbps internet plan. Wi-Fi 6 gives 1201 × 2 = 2402 Mbps theoretical; at 65 percent efficiency that is about 1561 Mbps, capped at the 500 Mbps plan, so usable speed is 500 Mbps. Wi-Fi 7 gives 2294 × 2 = 4588 Mbps theoretical, about 2982 Mbps real-world — also capped at 500 Mbps. Both saturate the plan completely. For this home, upgrading to Wi-Fi 7 changes nothing on a single-device speed test.
When Wi-Fi 7 genuinely wins
- 320 MHz channels — roughly 2.5 times the per-stream rate of 160 MHz, the single biggest jump, on routers and devices that support it.
- Multi-link operation (MLO) — Wi-Fi 7 can use two bands at once, cutting latency and smoothing out slowdowns in busy homes.
- 4096-QAM — packs more bits into every transmission, but needs a very clean, close-range signal; it fades fast through walls.
- Crowded homes — with dozens of devices online, Wi-Fi 7's scheduling improvements hold up better under load.
When Wi-Fi 6 is all you need
If the plan is 1 Gbps or less and the devices are 2x2, Wi-Fi 6 on a 160 MHz channel already saturates the plan in most rooms. The phone in your pocket probably does not support Wi-Fi 7 yet — and a Wi-Fi 7 router cannot make an old device any faster, because each device connects at its own standard's rate. Money spent on a faster router while the bottleneck is the plan or the device is money wasted.
How to compare for your own setup
Four numbers settle the debate for any home: the channel width, the device's stream count, the walls between router and device, and the plan speed. Take the real per-stream rates, multiply by the device's streams, apply the 65-percent efficiency factor and the per-wall penalty, then cap the result at the plan. The standard that reaches the full plan speed first is the one worth buying.
- Find your channel width (80 or 160 MHz on most current routers; 320 MHz on Wi-Fi 7 gear).
- Check your device's streams (a phone spec sheet usually lists 2x2; check yours).
- Count the walls between the router and where the device is used.
- Compare both standards' results against the plan speed.
Upgrade decision checklist
- Check the plan first — below 1 Gbps, Wi-Fi 6 almost always suffices.
- Count device streams — a 1x1 device cannot use either standard's headroom.
- Check device support — no Wi-Fi 7 phones or laptops in the house? Wait.
- Count the walls — through two walls, even Wi-Fi 7 falls back toward Wi-Fi 6 territory.
- Need lower latency (gaming, video calls) more than raw speed? Wi-Fi 7's multi-link operation matters more than its gigabit claims.
Try it now: Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 7 Throughput Comparator — compares real-world Wi-Fi 6, 6E and Wi-Fi 7 speeds for your channel width, device streams, walls and internet plan, and shows which standard your plan actually needs.
Frequently asked questions
Is Wi-Fi 7 actually twice as fast as Wi-Fi 6?
Per stream at the same channel width, roughly yes: Wi-Fi 7's ~1147 Mbps at 80 MHz is about double Wi-Fi 6's ~574 Mbps. But the plan caps everything — with a 500 Mbps plan, both standards deliver exactly 500 Mbps. The headline 46 Gbps is a theoretical maximum for a 16-stream device on a 320 MHz channel; no phone or laptop has 16 streams.
Will a Wi-Fi 7 router make my old devices faster?
No. Speed is negotiated between the router and each device individually. An older Wi-Fi 5 laptop connects at Wi-Fi 5 rates no matter how new the router is. Wi-Fi 7 speeds only appear when both the router and the device support the standard.
Does Wi-Fi 7 need a faster internet plan to be worth it?
Usually, yes — at least a multi-gigabit plan, plus a device that supports 320 MHz channels or 4096-QAM, and ideally line-of-sight to the router. For typical 300–1000 Mbps plans with 2x2 devices, Wi-Fi 6 already delivers the full plan speed, so the upgrade buys bragging rights rather than throughput.