LTE Throughput Calculator
Compute LTE peak downlink throughput from bandwidth, MIMO layers, modulation, code rate, carrier aggregation and duplex mode. Use UE category presets to replicate 3GPP reference throughputs (Cat 4 through Cat 20).
Applies typical layers, modulation, CA and 20 MHz BW.
Throughput vs. bandwidth (same layers / modulation)
| Bandwidth | Nprb | Throughput (Mbps) |
|---|---|---|
| 5 MHz | 25 | 35.2 |
| 10 MHz | 50 | 70.3 |
| 20 MHz | 100 | 140.6 |
About LTE throughput
LTE peak downlink throughput is driven by how many resource elements (REs) you can fill per second and how many bits each RE carries. A 20 MHz LTE carrier has 100 PRBs. Each PRB is 12 subcarriers wide, and a 1 ms subframe contains 14 OFDM symbols with normal CP. That gives 100 × 12 × 14 × 1000 = 16.8 million REs/s per layer. Multiply by the modulation order (2 for QPSK, 4 for 16QAM, 6 for 64QAM, 8 for 256QAM), the code rate (up to ~0.93), the number of MIMO layers, the number of aggregated carriers, and — for TDD — the fraction of subframes allocated to downlink.
UE categories (Cat 4, 6, 9, 12, 16, 20) represent published 3GPP peak rates. Cat 4 is the classic single-carrier 2×2 MIMO 64QAM 150 Mbps phone. Cat 16 adds 4×4 MIMO plus 256QAM plus 4 CC for gigabit LTE. Cat 20 reaches 2 Gbps with 5 CC. Real-world throughput is always lower due to channel quality, scheduling overhead and cell load — subtracting the typical 25% overhead gives a more realistic MAC-layer peak.
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