Zoom's official minimum requirements are misleadingly generous. The company says a call needs about 1.5 Mbps. Most home internet plans are 50 Mbps or more. On paper, this should never be a problem. In practice, Zoom calls drop, freeze, and stutter constantly.
The gap between the two is packet loss and jitter. Zoom can technically send a call in 1.5 Mbps, but only if every one of those bits arrives in order and on time. The moment your connection starts dropping packets — even 1 or 2% — the codec starts failing gracefully, and the user experience gets worse quickly. Home Wi-Fi is a common source, as are shared cable connections during peak hours.
The realistic minimum for a smooth Zoom experience is more like 5 Mbps of dedicated upload plus a stable connection with low jitter. If you regularly host calls with clients, aim higher. For a full technical breakdown of why the sticker numbers do not match real-world Zoom performance, this Cloudbrink deep-dive on the real internet speed needed for Zoom explains where the gap comes from.