Broadband contract length: 12, 18 or 24 months?

Broadband contract length is the box on an order page that almost nobody weighs up properly. The speed gets checked, the monthly price gets compared against two other deals, and then 12, 18 or 24 months gets picked on instinct, usually whichever works out cheapest per month.

That instinct is not wrong so much as answering the wrong question. What the term really decides is how many times your price can move before you are free to walk away. On most deals sold today that is worth more than the couple of pounds separating one length from another, and it is the one thing the comparison tables do not show you.

What broadband contract length can you actually get?

Twelve, 18 or 24 months, and 24 is the ceiling. A residential minimum term must not run longer than two years, and every provider has to make a term of no more than 12 months available for each service it sells. Ofcom sets both rules.

The obligation is worth reading carefully, because it is narrower than it sounds. It means a 12 month option exists somewhere in a provider's range. It does not mean it will be on the page you have landed on, that it will be offered to you on the phone, or that it will cost anything like the headline deal. In practice you often have to ask for it by name.

Below 12 months you are into rolling monthly, which is a different product rather than a shorter version of the same one. Our guide to what no contract broadband really offers covers what you give up for that flexibility.

The length decides how many price rises you sign up to

Most providers raise prices once a year, typically in the spring, and the rise applies whether you are mid term or not. So the term you pick is really a count. A 12 month deal signed in the autumn normally passes through one of those increases. An 18 or 24 month deal passes through two, on a monthly figure you chose because it looked lower.

Since 17 January 2025 the rise has at least had to be legible in advance. Ofcom banned new contract terms that tie a mid contract increase to inflation or to any percentage, and requires any built in rise to be set out in pounds and pence, prominently, before you agree. The ban applies to contracts sold from that date onward. It does not rewrite older ones, so a deal signed in 2023 can still carry the inflation linked wording it was sold with.

The practical effect is that on a modern contract the rises are knowable. You can add them up before you sign, which is exactly what comparing two terms honestly requires. Our guide to what your provider can and cannot do to your price goes through the rules in full.

Is a shorter term worth the higher monthly price?

Sometimes, and only arithmetic settles it. Multiply the monthly price by the number of months in the term, add any upfront charge, then add the increases the contract already tells you are coming. Do the same sum for the deal you are comparing it with. The lower total wins.

A shorter commitment does usually carry a higher monthly figure, because the provider is recovering the cost of connecting you across half as many bills. The gap is often a few pounds a month. What narrows it is the second price rise the longer deal carries, and what can close it entirely is what happens at the end: a 12 month deal returns you to the market a year sooner, while the market is still moving.

The honest counterweight is that shopping around takes effort most households do not want to spend every year, and a two year deal at a good price is a perfectly reasonable thing to want. The point is to choose it, rather than to arrive at it by default.

What a longer term locks in besides the price

Three things, and the price is only the first.

• The cost of leaving. Early exit charges are calculated from the months you have left, so a longer term means a bigger bill for longer. Our guide to what it costs to leave early covers how that is worked out.
• What happens if you move. A minimum term follows you rather than ending, and whether it can be transferred depends on whether your provider reaches the new address. The rules on broadband when moving house are worth knowing before you commit to two years.
• The provider itself. This one is specific to a young market. Smaller networks are still being built and still being bought and sold, so a two year commitment is a commitment to whoever owns the network at the end of it as well as the one selling to you now.

Where the shorter terms actually are

The 12 month option has to exist. Finding it is a separate job, because 24 months is what most broadband is advertised on and the shorter term is usually something you go looking for rather than something the order page puts in front of you. Among the alternative networks we track that publish their contract lengths, most sell a 12 month option alongside the 24, and a few sell rolling monthly as well.

That is a real difference, and it is also the point at which the usual caveat applies. Every altnet covers a specific footprint, so none of this is any use to you unless one of them has actually built past your door. The comparison table shows which terms each network sells, and the availability checker is the only thing that can tell you which of them reach your address.

What to check before you sign anything

Two documents and one date. Before you commit, a provider has to give you a short contract summary and fuller contract information, and between them they set out the minimum term, the price, any rise built into it and what leaving early would cost. That is where the real term lives. Not in the advert.

The date is the one your contract ends on. Nothing happens automatically when it does, and the service simply continues at the out of contract price. Ofcom requires your provider to send an end of contract notification between 10 and 40 days beforehand, telling you what you are on, what you will pay next and what its best deals are, and to send customers already out of contract an equivalent reminder once a year.

Those notifications are the single cheapest saving available to a household that has stopped paying attention, and they are also the easiest thing in the world to delete. Our guide to what happens when your deal ends covers what to do with one when it lands.

Frequently asked questions

How long can a UK broadband contract be?

No longer than 24 months for a residential customer. Ofcom caps the minimum term at two years, and separately requires every provider to make a term of no more than 12 months available for each service it sells. That does not mean the 12 month version will be on the page you are looking at, or that it will be the same price, only that it has to exist somewhere in the range.

Is a 12 month broadband contract cheaper than a 24 month one?

Almost never per month, and sometimes yes over the whole term. A shorter commitment usually carries a higher monthly figure, because the provider is recovering the cost of connecting you over half as many bills. What can close the gap is price rises: a 12 month term normally passes through one annual increase and a two year term through two, so the cheaper monthly price is not being paid for as long as the advert implies.

Can my provider put the price up during my contract?

Yes, if the contract says so, but on anything sold since 17 January 2025 it has to have told you the amount in pounds and pence before you agreed. Ofcom banned new contract terms that link mid contract rises to inflation or to any percentage. Older contracts signed before that date are not covered by the ban and can still carry the old inflation linked wording.

What happens at the end of my broadband contract?

Nothing automatic, which is the problem. The service carries on at whatever the out of contract price is, and that is usually higher than the deal you had. Under Ofcom's rules your provider has to send you an end of contract notification between 10 and 40 days beforehand, telling you what you are paying, what happens next and what its best deals are, so the notification is worth reading rather than filing.

Do altnets offer shorter contracts than the big providers?

Some do and some do not, and it varies by package as well as by network. Among the networks we track that publish their contract terms, most sell a 12 month option alongside a 24 month one, and a handful sell rolling monthly. What none of that settles is whether any of them reach your address, because that is street by street and only the checker knows.