Internet Service Providers in
San Francisco, CA

San Francisco is home to the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and one of the fastest internet providers in the country: Sonic. Sonic is a fiber-optic internet provider based in California that offers 10Gbps speeds for an affordable price. However, Sonic does have limited availability, so AT&T Fiber is your next best pick. This in no way means you’re settling—AT&T Fiber is a top-notch internet provider with symmetrical upload and download speeds, so you can seamlessly stream the Golden State Warriors as well as quickly upload your Tartine bakery trip to your Instagram story. If fiber is out of your budget, Xfinity offers cheaper cable plans with decent speeds in San Francisco.

Keep reading below to see the best internet providers in SF. 

—Kelly Huh

Sonic offers some of the best internet services in SF. This local provider offers a whopping 10Gbps fiber internet plan for only $50 per month for the first 12 months—an extraordinary deal that’s affordable and gets you a ton of bandwidth. AT&T Fiber is another excellent fiber provider in San Francisco which allows you to download data-intensive games in minutes and quickly upload Youtube videos.

Xfinity has the largest coverage area in San Francisco, covering 97% of the residential area according to the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Map. Xfinity is a solid provider that gets great reviews for its reliability, affordable plans, and top speeds. Although Xfinity doesn’t beat AT&T Fiber, it does make it onto Reviews.org’s list of the Fastest Internet Providers—the only cable provider to do so. There are a few snags here and there—an inevitable $20–$40 price increase per month after you’ve been a customer for 12–24 months, as well as a 1.2TB data cap. If you work in Silicon Valley, you might want to save your data-intensive work for in-office days.

Satellite providers Starlink, Viasat, and Hughesnet have wider availability in San Fran—they’re available pretty much anywhere in the city. But prices are high and speeds are low, making Xfinity the superior option for the city’s residents.

It’s no surprise that one of the best internet services in San Francisco come from a home-grown company. Sonic’s flagship internet plan gives you 10Gbps speeds on its top-tier fiber network for just $50 a month. It’s hard to find any ISP anywhere in the country that offers a better deal than that.

Sonic isn’t just beloved for its fast internet. Customers rave about the company’s customer service and its commitment to privacy and transparency. It advocates for net neutrality and an open internet.

Sonic’s powerful internet plans are, unfortunately, not available in every part of SF. Those in the neighborhoods like the Mission, the Castro, Richmond, Pacific Heights, and Sunset see good coverage from Sonic, but others may have to look for another internet provider.

Best Sonic internet plan for most people: 10 Gig plan for $49.99/mo.

If you can get it in your home, Sonic’s 10 Gig plan offers unparalleled speeds for just $50 a month for the first 12 months of your service. There are no hidden fees (even installation is free) and no contract required!

If you’re looking for a fiber internet provider with the greatest availability in the Bay Area, AT&T is a great choice. AT&T’s high-performance fiber-optic internet plans come at reasonable prices, making them ideal for everyone, from professional couples to big families with tons of devices.

AT&T’s fiber plans are available throughout San Francisco, but coverage is best in neighborhoods like Richmond, Sunset, Noe Valley, South of Market, and Excelsior. If you’re across the Bay, you can also find great fiber coverage from AT&T in Alameda, Oakland, and Berkeley.

Best AT&T Fiber internet plan for most people in San Francisco: 500 Mbps internet for $65.00/mo.

For most serious gamers, streamers, hackers, and doom scrollers, 500 Mbps internet is plenty of speed. You can easily hold down your work-from-home tech gig and have bandwidth to spare. For those with an eligible AT&T Wireless plan, it’s just $45 a month, which is a seriously amazing price. But even the normal $65 a month is a fair price for half a gigabit of internet speed.

There’s no reason to pay a bunch of money for fancy internet that you don’t need. For those who just want a cheap, no-frills service for streaming Netflix, playing some Fortnite, and browsing the web, there’s Xfinity.

Most homes in the San Francisco area are probably already wired up for Xfinity service. That’s because the company’s internet plans use the same infrastructure as its cable TV service. This makes installation easy and affordable.

Speaking of affordable, Xfinity’s introductory prices are among the best in the industry. There are several high-speed internet plans for under $50 a month. Just watch out for the 1.2TB monthly data cap, which may affect very online San Franciscans who use a lot of data to download big game updates or Zoom into work meetings.

Best Xfinity internet plan for most people: Connect More plan with up to 300Mbps for $35.00/mo.

At $35 a month, Xfinity’s Connect More plan is one of the cheapest 300Mbps internet plans on the market anywhere, let alone in the City by the Bay. But watch out for its price increases. Once your introductory rate period ends, your bill could go up by $30–$40 per month!

If you want fast internet speeds but you don’t want to deal with a bunch of wires and professional installation, then Verizon’s 5G Home Internet service is the way to go. Verizon’s home internet service uses the cell phone towers already built in the Bay Area to provide high-speed wireless internet in your home.

Verizon has gone out of its way to supercharge its infrastructure in San Francisco specifically. In August 2023, the company announced, “San Francisco residents and visitors will now be able to use a full 140 MHz of spectrum, more than doubling the 5G bandwidth available to serve customers.” That means you can easily get speeds of 300–1,000Mbps in many areas.

Verizon has also stated that 80% of San Francisco’s population is now covered with 5G Ultra Wideband. That means you should see amazing internet performance, as long as you’re in the city. But that performance goes down if you’re down on the Peninsula or in the East Bay.

Best Verizon 5G Home Internet plan for most people: 5G Home Plus plan for $70.00/mo. with up to 300Mbps download speed

This Plus plan from Verizon gives you up to 300Mbps internet speed, making it perfect for small households. It also comes with a ton of perks, including a free router and whole-home Wi-Fi setup. If you’re a current Verizon Wireless customer with an eligible cell phone plan, then you can get the Plus plan for just $35 a month.

Yes, San Francisco Airport (SFO) has free internet service. Here’s how to get connected to SFO Wi-Fi:

1. Open your Wi-Fi or Internet settings on your device.
2. Select “#SFO FREE WIFI” Wi-Fi network.
3. Launch a web browser.

You can get internet on the San Francisco Bay itself (i.e. you’re on a boat tour on the water and want to upload a story to Instagram) if you have cellular service on your phone. However, the connection quality depends on how far away you get from a cell tower. 

There is also free public Wi-Fi in San Francisco along Market Street from Embarcadero Plaza to Noe Street and in some Recreation and Parks facilities. Here’s how to get connected to free San Francisco Wi-Fi:

1. Open your Wi-Fi or Internet settings on your device.
2. Select “#SFWiFi” Wi-Fi network.
3. Launch a web browser.
4. Accept the terms of service.

Sonic Internet is available in several areas in San Francisco:

Check if Sonic is available for your neighborhood by searching your zip code in our tool below.