How-To Geek
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:
I notice that on my iPhone, when I use my personal hot-spot to distribute Wi-Fi and I have Bluetooth enabled, the phone will make a Bluetooth connection to my laptop instead of a Wi-Fi connection.
So I am wondering…is Bluetooth faster than Wi-Fi?
Which one is faster?
The Answer
SuperUser contributor Mokubai has the answer for us:
The Bluetooth standard’s maximum data rate is, at best, 3 Mbps or about 2.1 after protocol overheads take their cut.
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.
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.
- Published 06/19/14
It's not even close. Bluetooth is the Volkswagen to WiFi's Porche.
Bluetooth was made for things like keyboards, mice, and headsets, not for high speed data transfer. Sure, you can transfer files via Bluetooth, but it's slow enough to make me to wish I had a thumb drive the few times I've needed to use it for copying a file.
Bluetooth consumes much less energy, than WiFi. And, if you are just surfing, not watching videos online, IMO, there is little perceivable difference in speed.
Bluetooth is great for connecting devices but I have never been a fan of using it for networking. I find it to be extremely slow and to be unreliable while transferring files (multiple failures)Wi-Fi on the other hand is good especially the new ac standard. I have a USB adapter and it gets around 800mbs connection speed which blows away n and completely decimates g and below. I would like to see printers that connect at that speed hit the market. I image it would eliminate the stuttering and slow load time that happens occasionally.
The only problem with using WiFi for file transfer is that a lot of smartphones and tablets don't have an easy way to do direct file transfer: you can copy files to and from the cloud, but not so much from an Android phone to an iPad (for example.)
The new devices are starting to incorporate WiFi Direct, but not everything supports it. It's getting better, though.
Porche? Did you mean Porsche?
Bluetooth 3.0 supports speeds of up to 24MBits/sec (compared to 802.11g's 54MBits/sec)...not even close.