NBN 25 plans – ideal for casual users or savvy savers

Best NBN 25 plan for May 2026

The best NBN plan usually balances affordability with your speed needs, and might even offer extra perks like the option to BYO modem.

With that in mind, the best NBN 25 plan on Finder this month comes from Arctel.

Arctel Cruisy Lite NBN 25

25 Mbps
Typical evening speed

Unlimited
data

$48.99
per month

Read review

Check out our NBN guide for more details on how we selected the best NBN 25 plan, and how it stacks up against top picks in other speed categories.

How fast is NBN 25?

NBN 25 plans come with download speeds of up to 25Mbps and upload speeds of up to 10Mbps (though 4-8Mbps is the most common).

It's a good choice for people or households we like to call 'basic browsers'.

Tip: Not all NBN plans in the same tier are created equal. Keep an eye on the advertised typical evening speeds for the plan. To get the best bang for your buck, you'll want something close to the maximum speed, which in this instance is 25Mbps.

How much do NBN 25 plans cost?

The average monthly cost of fixed-line NBN 25 plans on Finder is about $73 a month as of May 2026, excluding any promotional discounts.

You can temporarily reduce the price on some plans to as little as $39 a month by taking advantage of sign-up deals. The promotional price typically lasts 6 or 12 months.

NBN 25 vs NBN 50

The average price difference between an NBN 25 and an NBN 50 plan on Finder is about $13 a month for double the speed. NBN 50 is also a good speed tier for the average household of 2-3 people or a single user that works from home and has multiple devices connected.

If you and your household spend a lot of time online on data-hungry activities, it may be worth checking out a faster NBN 50.

There are plenty of sign-up discounts available to try it for roughly the same price as an NBN 25 plan. Plus, you can always move down or up speed tiers without much hassle besides letting your provider know.

"I always had an NBN 50 plan because I didn't want the risk of slow internet, but when I moved apartments recently, I tried out the NBN 25. I'm 1 person who mostly works from the office, so I just use it for streaming music, TV and occasionally gaming or the odd Zoom call if I'm working from home. It's been totally fine, except for a few occasions when I've had friends staying, and the quality of video calls drops out. Definitely not a big enough problem for me to go up to NBN 50, but you should consider your own usage."

Rebecca Pike

Editor, Money

Frequently asked questions

• What does NBN 25 mean?

  NBN 25 is a basic speed tier on the NBN broadband network, also known as 'Basic II'. It provides speeds suitable for light internet use, like browsing, streaming on 1-2 devices in standard definition and checking emails.

• What is the difference between NBN 12 and NBN 25?

  NBN 12 essentially offers half the speed of an NBN 25 plan.

  NBN 25 is a decent choice for 1 or 2-person households with light internet usage.

  NBN 12 is usually best for those with very basic needs, like checking emails, browsing the web, and occasionally streaming TV shows and movies without worrying about video quality.

  Fewer providers now offer an NBN 12 plan as the demand for faster speeds continues to increase each year.

• Is NBN 25 good for Netflix?

  For an optimal Netflix experience for small households, Netflix recommends at least 25Mbps download speeds which you can get on an NBN 25 plan.

  You can watch a couple of standard definition streams simultaneously on NBN 25, but you may notice some lag when running more than a single high definition stream.

  This is especially true during the busy hours of the day (7pm–11pm) when you're likely to experience network congestion.

• What is the upload speed on an NBN 25 plan?

  The majority of NBN 25 plans reach an upload speed of typically 4–9Mbps.

  But there are a small number of plans you can find, such as from MATE, which features typical upload speeds of up to 10Mbps during peak hours (7-11pm).

Written by

Mariam Gabaji

Senior Utilities Editor & Tech Expert

Mariam Gabaji is a journalist with 13 years of experience, specialising in consumer topics like mobile services and energy costs. Her work appears in the ABC, Yahoo Finance, 9News, The Guardian, SBS, 7News, A Current Affair and Money Magazine. Mariam holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and was a finalist for the 2024 and 2025 IT Journalism Award for Best Telecommunications Journalist. See full bio

Mariam's expertise

Mariam has written 532 Finder guides across topics including:

• Energy
• Mobile
• Broadband
• Consumer tech