For anyone posting to YouTube regularly, upload speed is a direct measurement of how much of your day you spend waiting. A 10-minute 4K video is 3 to 6 GB. On a 10 Mbps upload plan, that is 40 minutes to an hour of upload time — per video. Post twice a week, and that is hours of your life spent watching a progress bar.
For 1080p uploads, 10 Mbps of upload is a working minimum. For 4K, aim for at least 35 Mbps to keep upload times reasonable. For creators posting daily, a fiber plan with 300 Mbps of upload gets that same 6 GB file uploaded in under three minutes.
Livestreaming to YouTube pushes the number higher still. YouTube supports higher bitrates than Twitch, and 1080p 60 fps live typically needs 20 Mbps or more of stable upload. For a full breakdown of the speeds needed for both watching and uploading YouTube content, this HighSpeedInternet guide to how internet speed affects watching HD YouTube is a good starting reference.
