Cheapest NBN plans April 2024: pay less for fast internet

Are you looking for the cheapest NBN plans to save money on your internet bill? We’ve compared many of the biggest telcos to find the best deals for you in each speed category.

Recent price changes to wholesale NBN mean you could be getting a better deal than your current plan. Many internet service providers (ISPs) offer introductory deals, including generous discounts for the first six months. Afterwards, it’s always worth shopping around so you’re not left paying more than you should. Most ISPs don’t use lock-in contracts, making it relatively easy to swap to a better-value plan.

Australians are downloading more than ever, and choosing faster plans accordingly. Make sure you regularly assess whether your current internet plan serves your needs, as recommended by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

With that in mind, here are the current cheapest NBN plans in Australia from a wide range of telcos. You can also compare the cheapest NBN 100 plans and the cheapest NBN 250 plans to save on faster internet.

Contents

• Cheapest NBN plans – April 2024
• NBN 12 plans
• NBN 25 plans
• NBN 50 plans
• NBN 100 plans
• NBN 250 plans
• NBN 1000 plans
• What you need to know
• Which NBN plan?

Cheapest NBN Plans – April 2024

Here are the cheapest NBN plans at the time of writing. We update this article monthly, but the prices listed in the tables update frequently, giving you up-to-date and accurate information.

Many of the retailers display promotional prices aimed at new and returning customers. These offers generally involve paying a discounted rate for six months before reverting to a standard price. To view the details of promotional offers, click on the green text labelled ‘deal’, which will also show the standard price.

Each plan featured here includes unlimited data. Some providers let you save a few dollars every month by choosing a plan with a data cap. If you know you don’t need much data, use this search tool to find plans with monthly data allowances.

NBN 12 plans

Aimed at people who only need the internet for browsing online and checking emails, an NBN 12 plan isn’t blazingly fast but saves money. Prices recently increased across the board as a result of the new wholesale pricing structure. You could previously find plans for less than $50 but no more, unfortunately.

Pretty much every NBN 12 plan costs around $65 per month, with no standout deals currently live. You’d be better off scrolling down and looking at faster speeds available for the same price or less.

NBN 25 plans

Suited for streaming videos in HD in addition to basic online tasks, an NBN 25 plan gives you a bit more flexibility and much more value for money. Tangerine and Exetel currently offer the cheapest NBN 25 plans, with both ISPs costing less than $50 per month for the first six months.

Exetel costs $59.99 after the promotion, making it one of the cheapest non-discounted NBN plans. It also includes a two-month free trial to Exetel’s Home Secure service, providing anti-virus protection to your devices in addition to parental controls. Normally, the service costs $6 per month.

Another decent NBN 25 deal comes from Swoop, offering its Home Casual plan for $54 a month for the first six months. Because the plan usually costs $69, it works out to be a decent $90 saving.

Otherwise, most NBN 25 plans sit between $60 and $65 per month, making the speed tier one of the cheapest options outside of promotional periods.

NBN 50 plans

Australia’s most popular internet plan, NBN 50 balances value with performance. These plans support 4K video streaming and can sustain multiple simultaneous users. Unfortunately, this speed tier was hit hard by wholesale pricing changes, increasing prices en masse, leading to people choosing faster speeds for only a few dollars more.

Comparing the cheapest NBN 50 plans reveals Dodo at the top of the tree. Throughout the entire month, you can sign up for just $59 per month, one of several strong deals from the Vocus Group telco. Saving $126 all up, this price lasts for six months before you start paying the full rate of $80. Tangerine and Exetel aren’t far off, with good deals of their own

Kogan costs a mere $58.90 but only for the first three months. Regardless, its regular $68.90 price is one of the cheapest NBN 50 plans outside of sales.

Other good sales come from Swoop and Superloop, coming in at $65 or less per month. As an incentive to retain you as a customer, Superloop also offers an Amazon Eero6+ router (valued at $249.99) for free if you stay connected for 18 months.

NBN 100 plans

NBN 100 plans let your household stream multiple 4K videos at once, download files, and still have bandwidth for online gaming. Thanks to cheaper prices and increased reliance on fast internet, NBN 100 is quickly growing in popularity among Australians. There’s also the possibility these plans will get five times faster by the end of the year.

There’s not much difference between the cheapest NBN 100 plans and the slower 50Mbps tier. Dodo backs up its strong deals this month, leaving you to pay only $64 a month for the first six months. You then pay $85, which is reasonably competitive.

Following closely behind are Exetel, Spintel, Superloop, and Tangerine, all offering prices less than $70. Kogan is the only ISP that offers a sub-$80 plan outside of discounts.

NBN 250 plans

Not content with just streaming videos, NBN 250 plans significantly reduce the time waiting for large downloads. Whether you want to download the latest video game or save a whole bunch of media for offline viewing, this gets it done quicker.

Looking at the cheapest NBN 250 plans, Spintel currently wins out, costing $75 a month for the first six months. It’s even one of the cheapest plans at its standard $85.95 pricing. However, Spintel’s advertised typical evening speeds are 211Mbps, slower than many of its competitors.

Among the decent NBN 250 deals priced around $85, the Swoop offer stands out. Usually $119 per month, it’s one of the pricier options, but advertises some of the fastest evening speeds. At $84, it saves $210 over six months, providing a great opportunity to test out faster internet.

Faster tiers like NBN 250 are among the major beneficiaries of the changed wholesale pricing. Retailers have dropped pricing in general, so there’s lots of competition afoot.

NBN 1000 plans

You don’t like waiting for downloads to finish, that’s why you’re looking at this section. As long as you don’t expect to hit full speeds during peak periods, NBN 1000 plans are for households that live on the internet. They’ve even got faster in recent months, delivering more consistent performance during busy hours.

One of the cheapest NBN 1000 plans regardless of sale status comes from Superloop. Its ‘Lightspeed’ tier costs $99 a month for six months, but the regular $109 price is also excellent value. Superloop also advertises the fastest evening speeds at 700Mbps, which is damn quick. If you stay connected for 18 months, the included Amazon Eero6+ router is free (normally $249.99 by itself).

Interestingly, Swoop’s advertised evening speeds are lower than Superloop’s, swapping places when compared to the NBN 250 tier. Despite this, $99 for Swoop is still a solid deal, and just under 600Mbps during peak times remains fast, no matter which way you slice it.

What you need to know

If you want broadband internet in Australia, your main and most reliable choice is via the National Broadband Network (NBN). Although the NBN provides the internet backbone, it does not sell plans directly to the public. Instead, telecommunication vendors package up retail and business plans, which include different features and levels of customer support.

NBN availability

The NBN is available to all Australians, but the way you access the NBN may be different. This might include a fixed cable into your home, wireless access via an antenna on your roof or a satellite dish.

To see what technology is available to you, start by visiting the NBN getting connected page. After entering your address, you will be shown the technology available at your address. You will also see which providers or NBN retailers sell access in your area. In Sydney alone, we were presented with 123 different retailers.

Speed and reliability

It is important to understand that the speed and reliability of your NBN plan can differ by retailer. Each buys internet capacity from the NBN. This capacity is then shared with a certain amount of the retailers’ customers. This means that a retailer may have faster speeds in one suburb versus another based on how many customers are accessing the overall capacity. It’s always good to ask your neighbours who they are with and their experience with a particular NBN retailer.

It’s also worth checking the ACCC website regularly. They publish quarterly broadband performance results, measuring how well telcos deliver on advertised internet speeds. You want to be certain that you’ll get the speeds you pay for, so this is a good starting point.

For those customers looking for an NBN alternative, we suggest the following GadgetGuy guides: How does 5G fixed-wireless stack up as an NBN alternative and Caravanner’s guide to connecting to the internet anywhere.

Having good internet speed is more than just a fast broadband connection. For more, be sure to check out GadgetGuy’s guide to improving your internet for more information.

Which NBN plan?

When evaluating an NBN plan, consider the following criteria:

• Data Limits – Is there a monthly download limit of data, or is the plan unlimited?
• Download Speed – Best measured at its busiest in megabits per second (Mbps) typical evening speed. Is it enough to watch Netflix? (Netflix requires 10-25Mbps depending on resolution quality.) Larger households with members using the internet simultaneously will require higher download speeds.
• Cost – How much do you pay each month, and is there a connection fee?
• Contract – Are you locking yourself to a retailer for a period, or is it month to month?
• Telephone – Is a fixed-line telephone service bundled into the plan?
• Customer service – What hours are supported, and is it an Australian-located call centre?
• Upload speed – Important for people who save large files online, like photos and videos.

Changing providers

If you wish to change internet providers, the process involves signing up with the new retailer in-store or online. You may receive a new Wi-Fi router, and you may have to return your old router to your previous retailer. The retailer-provided router is generally low quality but provides a fixed-line telephone connection if selected.

Your retailer might offer you an email address. Still, we recommend using a non-telco-specific email address such as Gmail or Hotmail, allowing you to easily change NBN retailers.

The NBN changeover process can take less than an hour, but depending on the location and NBN technology, it could take a few days. To take advantage of introductory offers, you could swap your provider every six months.

Suppose you do not wish to leave your existing provider. In that case, you may be able to negotiate a better rate by comparing it to cheaper offerings.

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As well as the cheapest NBN plans, make sure you check out the cheapest pre-paid SIM plans to save the most amount of money.

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