Best Internet Providers in Indianapolis, Indiana

CNET recommends AT&T Fiber as the best choice for internet in Indianapolis due to its fast speeds and overall availability. With speeds up to 5,000Mbps for $245 per month, residents looking for the best speeds shouldn't look elsewhere. However, if you end up outside the internet service provider's area, we recommend Spectrum's cable service as a fantastic alternative.

For residents with smaller budgets who want to keep their costs low, we recommend Xfinity. It has some of the most affordable plans in Indianapolis, starting at $55 per month for 300Mbps. You should also consider checking out T-Mobile Home Internet, which, coupled with a mobile plan, can offer eligible customers internet for as low as $35 per month.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

• Earthlink: With the largest customer reach of any wired ISP, Earthlink piggybacks off other networks to connect its customers. It offers a good variety of speeds, starting at 100Mbps and going up to an impressive 5,000Mbps, with prices ranging from $54 to $204.
• Hoosier Broadband: This regional carrier services some areas of Indianapolis (city center and north) and its surrounding regions. It offers fixed wireless and fiber, based on the customer’s address.
• Satellite internet: Satellite internet from Hughesnet, Viasat or Starlink is an option wherever you live. However, it shouldn’t be your first pick. With high prices and slow speeds, cheaper and faster options are available.
• T-Mobile Home Internet: Some Indy residents (mostly in the north and east of the city) may have access to 5G internet from T-Mobile. T-Mobile’s home internet service is available for $50 to $70 (or $35 to $55 for eligible mobile customers) and offers speeds up to 415Mbps.
• Xfinity: The biggest name in cable services only a small section of Indianapolis around the city’s center and surrounding regions. The company offers speeds ranging from 400 to 1,300Mbps with prices topping at $85. Just mind the 1.2TB data cap.

If you want the most affordable internet plan in Indianapolis, Xfinity offers a 300Mbps plan for $55 a month. Providers like Verizon and T-Mobile offer discounts to eligible mobile customers, meaning your monthly bill might cost only $35 to $45.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

The best internet deals and top promotions in Indianapolis depend on what discounts are available during a given time. Most deals are short-lived, but we look frequently for the latest offers.

Indianapolis internet providers, such as Spectrum and Xfinity, may offer lower introductory pricing or streaming add-ons for a limited time. Many providers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, run the same standard pricing year-round.

For a more extensive list of promos, check out our guide on the best internet deals.

With median download speeds of about 228Mbps, according to Ookla’s list of internet speeds in the nation’s 100 most populous cities, Indy sits in the middle of the pack, ranking at 57th. (Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.) Fortunately for residents of Hoosier City, there are many broadband choices when it comes to connecting to the internet. Major internet service providers like AT&T, Xfinity, Spectrum, T-Mobile and Verizon operate in the city, although they won’t all be available to every neighborhood.

Ready to zoom around the (internet) speedway? AT&T has the fastest hookup with its 5,000Mbps plan. If you don't need to go that fast, you can opt for plans from multiple providers that offer gigabit download speeds.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

Most internet connection plans can now handle basic productivity and communication tasks. If you're looking for an internet plan that can accommodate videoconferencing, streaming video or gaming, you'll have a better experience with a more robust connection. Here's an overview of the recommended minimum download speeds for various applications, according to the FCC. Note that these are only guidelines and that internet speed, service and performance vary by connection type, provider and address.

For more information, refer to our guide on how much internet speed you really need.

• 0 to 5Mbps allows you to tackle the basics: browsing the internet, sending and receiving email and streaming low-quality video.
• 5 to 40Mbps gives you higher-quality video streaming and videoconferencing.
• 40 to 100Mbps should give one user sufficient bandwidth to satisfy the demands of modern telecommuting, video streaming and online gaming.
• 100 to 500Mbps allows one to two users to simultaneously engage in high-bandwidth activities like videoconferencing, streaming and online gaming.
• 500 to 1,000Mbps allows three or more users to engage in high-bandwidth activities at the same time.

Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen tool, it's impractical to personally test every ISP in a given city. What's our approach? For starters, we tap into a proprietary pricing, availability and speed database that draws from our own historical ISP data, partner data and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC.gov.

It doesn’t end there: We go to the FCC’s website to check our data and ensure we consider every ISP that provides service in an area. We also input local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for residents. We look at sources, including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Power, to evaluate how happy customers are with an ISP's service. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; all information provided is accurate as of publication.

Once we have this localized information, we ask three main questions:

• Does the provider offer access to reasonably fast internet speeds?
• Do customers get decent value for what they're paying?
• Are customers happy with their service?

While the answers to those questions are often layered and complex, the providers that come closest to “yes” on all three are the ones we recommend. When selecting the cheapest internet service, we look for the plans with the lowest monthly fee, although we also factor in things like price increases, equipment fees and contracts. Choosing the fastest internet service is relatively straightforward. We look at advertised upload and download speeds and consider real-world speed data from sources like Ookla and FCC reports.

To explore our process in more depth, visit our how we test ISPs page.

With decent availability and high value in terms of speed for the price, most of Indianapolis is well served by AT&T’s hard-to-beat fiber internet. For residents of certain parts of the city, other choices include cable, 5G and satellite.