Data and Bandwidth Requirements for Microsoft Teams

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Microsoft Teams is another online collaboration tool used in many companies and organizations world-wide. The difference between Zoom and Microsoft Teams is that Teams is considered more of an internal collaboration tool, while Zoom is used more for external communication.

Most companies who already utilize Microsoft 365 can seamlessly integrate Teams into their workstream. Many companies work with both applications to take advantage of their strengths; like the chat collaboration of Teams and the simplicity of reaching customers or vendors through video with Zoom.

Below are data and bandwidth requirements taken directly from Microsoft Teams website entitled “Prepare your organization’s network for Teams.”

Teams is designed to give the best audio, video, and content sharing experience regardless of your network conditions. That said, when bandwidth is insufficient, Teams prioritizes audio quality over video quality.

Where bandwidth isn’t limited, Teams optimizes media quality, including up to 1080p video resolution, up to 30fps for video and 15fps for content, and high-fidelity audio.

This table describes how Teams uses bandwidth. Teams is always conservative on bandwidth utilization and can deliver HD video quality in under 1.2Mbps. The actual bandwidth consumption in each audio/video call or meeting will vary based on several factors, such as video layout, video resolution, and video frames per second. When more bandwidth is available, quality and usage will increase to deliver the best experience.

Bandwidth Requirements:

Bandwidth(up/down) Scenarios

  • 30 kbps Peer-to-peer audio calling
  • 130 kbps Peer-to-peer audio calling and screen sharing
  • 500 kbps Peer-to-peer quality video calling 360p at 30fps
  • 1.2 Mbps Peer-to-peer HD quality video calling with resolution of HD 720p at 30fps
  • 1.5 Mbps Peer-to-peer HD quality video calling with resolution of HD 1080p at 30fps
  • 500kbps/1Mbps Group Video calling
  • 1Mbps/2Mbps HD Group video calling (540p videos on 1080p screen)

Editor’s note:

  • 30 kbps = .03 Mbps
  • 130 kbps = .13 Mbps
  • 500 kbps = .5 Mbps

These requirements are for running Teams only, and do not include other applications and devices that you may be using while in your meeting.