Is Bluetooth Faster Than Wi Fi

If your devices have both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capability built in, then which one is actually faster? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answer to a curious reader’s question.

Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.

The Question

SuperUser reader jt0dd wants to know if Bluetooth is faster than Wi-Fi:

Which one is faster?

So I am wondering…is Bluetooth faster than Wi-Fi?

The Answer

SuperUser contributor Mokubai has the answer for us:

Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.

Wi-Fi on the other hand, maxes out anywhere from 54 to 1300+ Mbps depending on whether you have “g”, “n”, or “ac” Wi-Fi plus any enhancements in the adaptors and router support.

So no, Bluetooth is not faster than Wi-Fi. Not even vaguely close.

Bluetooth version 3 and version 4 have higher data rates, but the actual data transfer in those implementations happens over Wi-Fi; Bluetooth is only used to set up and negotiate the connection.