Configure media bit rate for Teams
Microsoft Teams dynamically optimizes settings for the best experience it can give based on the bandwidth available. If the Teams client detects packet loss or other network issues, it ramps down the quality of audio and video. If the network is uncontested, it optimizes for quality and uses more bandwidth.
Managing bandwidth by configuring media bit rate (MBR)
Microsoft Teams admins can optionally limit the average bit rate of calls and meetings, this is called the Media bit rate (MBR). Perform the following steps to configure a meeting policy:
Navigate to the Microsoft Teams admin center at https://admin.teams.microsoft.com.
Select Meetings and select Meeting policies.
Navigate to Media bit rate (Kbps) and change it according to your needs.
This setting determines the average combined media bit rate for audio, video, and video-based app sharing in both meetings and peer to peer calls. The Media Bit Rate applies to both the client and Teams service, so the setting is applied to both directions.
Note
This is a maximum. If the client experiences network issues, it will still lower video and audio quality to try to give the best experience within the bandwidth available.
The default MBR is 50,000 Kbps, much more than an individual Teams client can possibly use. For meetings that need the highest quality video experience, Microsoft recommends you set the bandwidth to 10,000 Kbps or 10 megabits per second. The minimum value you can go down to is 30 Kbps, but this limits the user experience to basic audio for calls and meetings.
The following table describes the minimum bandwidth per user required for using Teams in different calling situations. Consider which experience level you want users to have. Based on the following table, the minimum you can set to have all Teams experiences at a minimum, excluding Together Mode is 250 Kbps.
| Modality | Minimum Up | Minimum Down | Recommended Up | Recommended Down | Best Performance Up | Best Performance Down |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audio | ||||||
| One-to-one | 10 | 10 | 58 | 58 | 76 | 76 |
| Meetings | 10 | 10 | 58 | 58 | 76 | 76 |
| Video | ||||||
| One-to-one | 150 | 150 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Meetings | 150 | 200 | 2,500 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Screen sharing | ||||||
| One-to-one | 200 | 200 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Meetings | 250 | 250 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Together Mode (Meetings Only) | 1,000 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 4,000 |