Starlink is offering a new line of service, called Best Effort, to a limited number of people on the Residential waitlist. If selected for Best Effort, pre-order deposit holders will have a chance to get Starlink now, with an automatic upgrade to Residential later on when capacity expands.
What is Best Effort?
Starlink Best Effort is a service plan from Starlink that allows people in waitlisted areas to get Starlink service immediately, before their address is available for full Residential service. It’s exactly as the name implies, a “better than nothing” type of service. Like Starlink Roam, Best Effort customers are deprioritized on the network, meaning they will experience slower speeds compared to Residential users. Also like Roam, Best Effort customers will be able to pause and resume service at any time.
The big advantage over Starlink Roam is the price. Best Effort is $120/month, which is less than the $150/month that Starlink Roam customers pay.
For a full explanation of the types of Starlink service, check out our Starlink Internet Plans Explained article.
Who is eligible?
Customers who have made a pre-order deposit for the Residential waitlist are eligible, but only select customers are getting the offer. We have received reports from several people across the US, so it doesn’t appear to be limited to one specific region.
We also know it’s not being offered to every pre-order customer at this moment. Perhaps Starlink is rolling this option out in phases, depending on the capacity issues in each specific region.
There is no way to request Best Effort. It’s an offer that Starlink will extend to eligible customers. Be sure to check your email inbox for communications from Starlink. You can also check your Starlink.com account portal periodically to see if the Best Effort offer pops up.
Will I keep my spot on the waitlist?
Yes, customers who opt for the Best Effort service will maintain their place on the waitlist for Residential service. Your account will automatically convert to Residential service when capacity opens in your area. That makes this service a much better deal than Starlink Roam for people who don’t need a portable dish to use at multiple locations.
What does Best Effort cost?
The Best Effort hardware will cost you $599, and you’ll pay $120 per month for the service. There are no contracts, and a 30 day return period if you aren’t satisfied.
Is the hardware the same as Residential?
Yes, the Starlink equipment you receive with Best Effort is identical to the equipment sold with Residential. When you are eligible to upgrade to Residential, you won’t have to buy new hardware, your Best Effort dish, mounts, etc. will all work the same with Residential service.
What speeds will I get with Best Effort?
Starlink Best Effort speeds range from 5 to 50 mbps down, and 2-10 mbps up. Best Effort and Roam users are deprioritized on the network, which means they will experience degraded performance when there are many users on the Starlink network in a specific cell.
Here are the official Best Effort speed specifications:
| Download Speed | Upload Speed | Latency | Data Caps |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5-50 mbps | 2-10 mbps | 25-50 ms | No |
For more about speeds, check out our full article on Starlink speeds.
How can I tell if I have Best Effort?
One common question I get is how to tell if you are on Best Effort or not. If you have accepted the Best Effort offer, and are wondering if you have been upgraded to Residential, there is an easy way to tell:
- Log in to your account on Starlink.com
- Click the Manage button next to your Starlink plan
- If you see the option to pause service, you have Best Effort. If you don’t have the option to pause service, you have Residential
Also, Starlink will send you an email when your service plan has been upgraded from Best Effort to Residential. The timeline for when to expect to be upgraded varies based on location, number of Starlink subscribers in your area, and how many satellites Starlink has deployed.
Conclusion
Starlink Best Effort is Starlink’s latest attempt to serve more users with limited network capacity. The demand for Starlink is much higher than the network has the capacity for. As the satellite constellation is deployed over time, capacity will increase.
Starlink believes many customers will accept degraded performance over not having internet at all. With the success of Starlink Roam, it was only a matter of time before Starlink realized many people were ordering Roam just to have internet at home. This new Best Effort service gives those people a better option.
Did you get the email? Do you plan to subscribe to Best Effort? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Got my best effort dish in 10 days although said due to demand 2-4 weeks. Being installed Wednesday. I live in a forest but the installler said he has seen worse and had no call backs.
Are people experiencing a delay in getting their equipment once they have paid for Best Effort? I can not afford to spend $615 only to be put on standby with no way to confirm if my equipment has been shipped or when they will ship it. Are people reporting that they paid for Best Effort and not getting their equipment or any internet service?
I haven’t heard reports of long delays. It typically takes a week or two to receive the dish.
Mine came in 4 days
I have best effort; my neighbor is on the wait list for starlink and would like to get the best effort. How can I assist her in getting it? -email address removed by admin–
We aren’t Starlink so we can’t help get her Best Effort, but she can log in to her account dashboard to check if the offer is available. Otherwise, it’s just a waiting game.
A lot depends how long you have been waiting. I signed up 18 months ago and just got my best effort.
I am currently in the “expected mid-2023” group and I got the email for Best Effort. When I go to my account to opt-in, there is a date of Dec. 30, 2023. There is no info on what this date refers to. Is that when I will receive equipment for Best Effort? Or is it when residential service can be expected? That’s almost a year away, I guess I took the “urgent connectivity needs” to mean it would be received sooner? I work from home and it is urgently needed 😕
I’ve been seeing that on some Starlink forums, but no idea what it is supposed to mean. It’s my understanding that Best Effort means your unit will ship out now. You won’t have to wait on Best Effort. My best guess would be that is when Starlink expects Residential to be available for your address, or when the Best Effort offer expires.
Hi I ordered my Starlink 4 weeks ago, havent heard anything, we purchashed a house in Florida, and I can not get internet service in my area, I work from home, and have not been able to get settled in, without internet, were rural. I am having a hard time trying to get Best Efforts as well, Could you help us , Please?
Did you just put down the $99 pre-order deposit 4 weeks ago? If so, people wait months or even years, depending on the area and how much demand for Starlink there is. Starlink selects which accounts can get Best Effort, so it’s not something you can request. They will send you an email, and the offer will show up in your Starlink.com account dashboard if you have been selected.
My advice, if you can spare the extra money, is to just buy a Starlink RV unit. Like I said, you could be waiting months or a year. With RV you can get it immediately, just with some downsides like reduced speeds, inability to transfer or convert to Residential, etc.
Hi, is there a way to reach Starlink. My account still shows that I should expect service in my area by Mid 2022 even though we are bow in 2023. I accepted best effort but am yet to see it any movement on my account. Any ideas?
If you bought Best Effort you should be able to create a support ticket with Starlink:
https://www.starlinkhardware.com/how-to-contact-starlink-customer-support/
Thank you, sir.
So I am clueless about speeds of uploads/downloads etc. I am currently on Viasat and our internet speeds aren’t fast enough to even stream a movie on Netflix if another person on an iPad or phone. I pay over $200/month for 100mps of data and we use it up every month before the month is over. I was offered best effort… do you think those speeds would be better then what I currently deal with? Thanks!!
Yes, Best Effort will be better than Viasat for sure.
I had ViaSat with the same package. I have the RV Starlink now and can work from home and stream anything. Even with the deprioritized times. I didn’t take the Best Efforts so I can take the RV places when needed. I just worry about my acct telling me to confirm Best Efforts and if I don’t do I remain on the waiting list?
Yes, you’ll remain on the waitlist as long as you don’t cancel your account and deny the Best Effort. Just leave the offer there if you don’t want it.
I signed up for and received best effort. I checked my account today, and it says “residential”. Does this mean I’ve been switched to residential service, or do all best effort accounts say residential?
All Best Effort accounts will say Residential. You can double check by seeing if you can pause service. If you have the option to pause, it’s Best Effort.
How long did it take you to get your equipment once you signed up for best effort?
Are people experiencing a delay in getting their equipment once they pay for Best Effort? I can not afford to spend $615 only to be put on standby with no way to confirm if my equipment has been shipped or when they will ship it. Are people reporting that they paid for Best Effort and have gone months without getting their equipment or any internet service?
I guess this is bad news for me. My order status that once showed pending for both shipping and tracking are now showing blank. I opted for best effort on 9/27/2022. On my starlink website page, it says coverage for me is mid 2022. Deposit lists as 99.00. Finally, it days I am signed up gorgeous Best effort. This happened over the weekend. Did anyone experience this?
I recently set up my Best Effort service. My speeds range from 5-160 mb/sec. Obviously slower at peak hrs. I’m a residential customer and don’t need blinding speed, 5 mb/ sec works just fine for streaming. In contrast I was using Hughes net with speeds ranging from 0 – 15mb/ sec that was very unreliable, typically with speeds under 4mb/sec. I was paying $185/ month for Hughes. Deciding to go with Best Effort for $110/ month was a no brainer. The Starlink equipment will pay for itself in savings after 7 months.
Yep even at it’s worst, Starlink is often better than other satellite internet at their best! It is really a game changer for rural internet.
What do you think of the 1TB data cap now? Cash grab by greedy Elon?
I wrote about it here: https://www.starlinkhardware.com/starlink-introduces-1-tb-soft-data-limit-slashes-speeds-50-for-us-customers/
In short, it’s not a change most people will even notice, but power users will be met with lower speeds during peak hours.
I am in an area right next to “available now” but still in the Expanding in 2023 section. I never received an option for “Best Effort” coverage. How can I sign up? Your help is greatly appreciated. My wife and I both work from home and our only other internet option is 10 m download and .5 upload!!!
Assuming you have pre-ordered already, you just have to wait to be selected. You’ll get an email from Starlink if Best Effort is available to you. You can also check your account dashboard periodically, as the option to accept will be there as well.
I got the best effort email and waited till my next paycheck to opt in. It messaged me that I would be emailed soon but never received it and was never charged for the equipment. When I check my starlink account it says I’m in the best effort program but when I scroll down to devices it says nothing will be listed till it ships. I would just like to know if there’s some extra step I don’t know about or if something got delayed. All of my profile info is up to date including my payment method and it has beem a few weeks. thank you
Do you have any orders listed under Orders? Usually it will list the order even though it hasn’t shipped. It should say Pending. But Best Effort may be different.
For order it says deposit then the shipping and tracking say pending. Not sure what to make of all this, it’s like I slipped through the cracks somewhere.
Same exact scenario with mine.
Hey guys – I also did not receive the email, but on my home page in my account on the website, I noticed an option to “opt in” to the “best effort”. When I clicked on this, it moved my order to the cart checkout page, and seems to be presenting me with the option to order now. I am going to place the order, as the terms state that I can temporarily suspend service if i do not like the speeds and availability – until my turn in line for full speed becomes available(which using this method I will not lose my place in line to get residential service). This I am willing to do. Just thought I would pass this on.
Here is another update. I clicked “place order” and received a confirmation of my order, stating “Thank you for your purchase.
You will receive an email shortly confirming receipt of your order. Once your purchase is ready to go, we will send you a Shipment Notification with tracking information.”
On the order page it states “preparing shipment”
and also 0.00 due, so it seems my card was charged.
Hello Mike,
What does it show in your account for estimated shipping and order status?
I never received the email. However, the offer of “Best Effort” was available to me. I opted in. Now. My account’s page is similar to yours. My card has not been charged. Order shows “Deposit.” Shipping and Tracking both show “Pending.” I am not sure what’s happening. My account still says I am due to receive service in Mid 2022. Any ideas?
hopefully we find something out soon, that’s a good chunk of money to just be surprised with out of nowhere
I know, I am checking it throughout the day.
Were you ever charged for the equipment? Mine is still saying the same thing, and I have head nothing else from Starlink. I assummed you got the equipment once you opted in. Never gave me a link to pay. Just says “Best Effort, Deposit, Pending”
And, good luck getting any assistance. I had a friend with starlink contact customer support and was told that my account was still in pre=order status (even though it shows best effort), and that I would receive an email regarding shipping. I seriously doubt that they will be shipping without payment….I am just terribly frustrated with the lack of clear information. When the best effort email mentioned use for those with “urgent connectivity” needs, I assumed that meant sooner than a month…and with no further correspondence at that.
Thank you for the heads up. It truly is frustrating as I am dying out here with hughesNet. I am praying that it does not take another 3 months before we can get our equipments.
I am in the same spot. Opted-in on 9/27, and I never received any further correspondence and was not prompted to pay for equipment nor can I order it
Hello Courtney,
Are you still waiting to hear from Starlink? I have heard nothing. Instead, my account no longer show pending Instead it shows blank.
The Best Effort notification encourages people who can wait to do so. But on the account page there is no option to wait. The only options are to accept Best Effort or cancel.
To continue just waiting, you don’t do anything. They keep the offer for Best Effort available so that if you change your mind later, you can always come back and accept.
I thought one of the goals of Starlink was to provide service to under-served rural areas? The US Government (FCC/USDA) provided Starlink and all of the big providers 100’s Millions/Billions of dollars to kick start services for rural areas and yet Starlink was first launched in heavily populated areas already served by high-speed internet. Why? I live in a rural area in Central Florida where the only internet is DSL and despite being on the Starlink Wait List from the beginning I still cannot get regular service. Why should I pay $110 a month for subpar service that will, at peak times, actually suck worse than DSL? Why isn’t Best-Effort priced accordingly?
And the problem is not just Starlink, but all the big Telcos also grabbed government monies but are not upgrading cell towers in rural areas with 5G service that could bring decent fixed-wireless internet services.
There are many suburbs and metro areas with the same problem as rural areas. It’s true that one of the goals was to serve areas without broadband options. But this includes more than just rural areas. It’s a first-come, first-served order system with a limited capacity. I understand it is frustrating to still be waiting on internet, but the issue is simply limited capacity. More people need Starlink than they can provide service to at the moment. It’s not like people are picking $110/month Starlink over other cable/fiber options that are better and cheaper, as you seemed to imply. The US simply has an internet infrastructure issue all over the country, not just in rural areas. I don’t think even Starlink understood how bad the problem was.
I signed up in August of 2021 and have yet to receive anything. Is there a link that I can use to sign up for “best effort”?
If you become eligible, they will send you an email AND it will be on your account page.
No link to sign up, they will email you the offer if they select your account.
Brooksville, Fl just received these emails today. My parents, a neighbor, and my husband all received the same email with a few minutes of each other. Neighbor was expecting service late-2022 but his email said he was being pushed to mid-2023. My parents and I were suppose to receive early-2023 but have been pushed to Mid-2023 as well. We all signed up as we are in rural locations- neighbor it 1/2 mile away! 😂 Once placing the order, it said we would receive hardware within two weeks! Pretty ecstatic as we have been running off Verizon hotspots for two years!
Received “best effort” e-mail September 22. Today I decided to access my Starlink account. After reading various items on this web site (starlinkhardware.com), I decided to sign up and order the equipment for “best effort”. The information I gathered from this site allayed some concerns about losing my place in line for “residential” service. Now to order the wired interface, as some of my equipment is not wireless/WiFi capable.
I am currently on Verizon Wireless at speeds of about 15Mb/s download, and $75.00/month, with a 100GB data/speed cap. No wired internet or any type of cable service available in my area.
I received my email for best effort. Do I have accept it in a timely manor or can I think about it for a while like a month or two?
I don’t believe there is any type of time limit for the Best Effort offer.
Is it worth getting the best effort plan or wait for residential plan
If you don’t currently have internet that you find acceptable for what you need to use it for, then it’s worth it. For example, people using mobile hotspots with limited data. Or those with really slow DSL. Best Effort will give you mostly excellent speeds, with potential slowdowns in the evenings during peak usage.
Best Effort is simply being able to enjoy a “better than nothing” Starlink experience while you wait on capacity to open up. For people without many internet options, I think it’s a decent tradeoff. Not having to wait in exchange for reduced performance during peak hours.
Yes I have 2 Verizon mobile hotspots with 150 gigabytes each for 120 dollars a month. It says I have a little obstruction at my house will that hurt me?
Any obstructions at all will hurt performance. For best results, you have to be able to mount it in a location where there are no obstructions.
Thank you
Can I get best effort in north alabama. I have been on the list for quite a while
Starlink is rolling Best Effort in phases. You’ll have to wait for the email invitation, it isn’t being done by request or anything like that.
I am near Heflin, Al, and have been on the list for 17 months now. While I wait, I got the T-Mobile Internet Lite system. 100Gb for $30. I can wait until this area is eligible for full Residential service. What part of Alabama?
How do I get on the list to receive Best Effort service? I am currently on the waiting list for residential.
If you have a pre-order, you’re already on the list. Starlink is selectively offering this to pre-order accounts. There is no way of knowing if you’ll get the offer or not.
Yes I am interested in the Best Effort service until I can receive my residential service.
I have 25down, 5 up right now. If I decide not to do the “best effort”, will I lose my place in line
No, you don’t have to accept the Best Effort service to keep your place in line.
I have been on the list almost from the beginning, as I seen from several other commenters. I pay for DSL, but I’m not sure why. It rarely allows me access to the internet, but even when it does, all I can do is send and receive email. What I want to know is, having been on the pre-order list, why was I not notified of availability when Starlink first had coverage in my location? I’ve heard that the equipment/accounts were not provided in the order that the pre-orders for a given area were received. That instead, it was a free for all of everyone who requested service when it became available here. Is this true? Why? This does not seem like an appropriate way do do business.
No, that’s not true. Pre-orders were filled on a first come, first served basis. However, it’s important to understand that capacity is based on cells, which are arbitrary boundaries determined by Starlink. There could be multiple cells within a city/county, etc. So someone down the road may have ordered after you, but got their dish first, because they might be in a different cell. This has led to the belief that it was a free for all, when in reality it’s based on which cell you are in, and the capacity for that cell.
I got on the waitlist the day it opened and waited until Sept 1st 2022 to get my starlink. I signed up for the best effort and I pull between 50mb/s-90 mb/s during the day and roughly between 2mb/s-10 mb/s in the evenings as the speeds slow when the network is in more use. However, it is WAAAYYYY better than viasat and even at the slowest speeds I can stream Monday night football or watch a TV show. I love it and I’m looking forward to the final expansion 🙂
Glad it’s working out for you. The nice thing about Best Effort is that you don’t have to do anything, just wait until capacity opens up and you are converted to the higher priority Residential account.
Do you know what your upload speeds are during the day?
How long did it take you to get your equipment once you signed up for best effort?
I was an early order, expecting service spring 2021. I just got the email, ordered and received equipment 5 September 2022. Set up went smoothly. Speeds: down 10/ up less than 1. 🙁
Better than what I have, but I feel I was stepped over for residential. Hopefully will get full service soon.
Are those speeds on Wifi? If you do the speed test in the Starlink app, you can swipe up for an Advanced Test. Check the Router to Internet speed. That’s the best indication of performance because it eliminates any Wifi variables.