An Honest Cox Internet Review, According to Customers

Many customers credit Cox cable internet for being fast and reliable—but pricing and customer service could be better.

Cox Internet at a glance
Cox
Overall Quality ⁃ 3.6/5
bullet 3.8/5 - Speed and reliability
bullet 3.3/5 - Dollar value
bullet 3.8/5 - Customer experience
man popping out of a laptop with a speech bubbles with Wi-Fi, thumbs up, piggy bank
Brianne Sandorf
Mar 12, 2024
Icon Time To Read10 min read

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Cox isn’t usually considered the belle of the internet ball. Its speeds are relatively slow for the price you pay, its plans don’t come with free unlimited data, and the cable company isn’t available in a lot of cities where other well-known cable and fiber providers have a wide reach.

And yet Cox is still a worthy pick, thanks to its variety of plan options, bundle bargains, and gigabit capabilities. Cox offers free self-installation, which is a small perk that a lot of its cable competitors don’t offer. Even more importantly, the company appears to be building up its fiber-internet infrastructure, with symmetrical speeds and multi-gigabit capabilities now part of Cox’s menu of customer options.

“Overall, I'd say the service is pretty good and dependable,” said M. J. Stevens, a Cox customer of 15 years who lives in San Diego, California.

I did extensive research and interviewed 17 current and former Cox customers to put together this review. My findings suggest that, while Cox has its ups and downs, it's more than adequate for most households.

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Get to know Cox internet: The basics

Plan
Price
Download speed
Details
Go Fast$49.99/mo.*100 Mbps
Go Faster$69.99/mo.*250 Mbps
Go Even Faster$89.99/mo.Up to 500 Mbps
Go Super Fast$109.99/mo.Up to 1000 Mbps
Go Beyond Fast$149.99/mo.*Up to 2000 Mbps
* No annual contract or cancellation fees.
for 12 mos. No annual contract.
for 12 months with 1-yr. term agreement

Cox has several plans that it handily identifies with the best way to use them. On Cox’s website, for example, the provider describes its Go Beyond Fast plan this way: "Great for multiple video conferences, multi-player gaming, multiple 4K/8K streams, virtual reality, and more." Prices range from $49.99 a month to $149.99 a month, and prices go up by 20% to 40% on most of the plans after 12 months. (The one exception is Go Fast, which doesn’t have any price hike after a year.)

Cox's plans all have a monthly data cap of 1,280GB, equivalent to 1.25TB. That's a ton of data, so you likely don’t have to worry about exceeding your cap during a month. Still, it's not unlimited data (which many internet providers include), so there's always the possibility of slipping up and using more than you should. Exceeding your cap during the month leads to an overage fee of $10 per 50GB.

Some Cox plans have annual contracts with cancellation fees, while others are contract free. Make sure you know the terms of the deal before you sign up.

“Overall, I'd say the service is pretty good and dependable.” -Cox customer M. J. Stevens

Cox fees for modem and installation

Panoramic Wi-Fi equipment rental

$15.00/mo.

Professional installation

$100.00

Self-installation

Free

Overage fees

$10 per 50GB (up to $100 a month)

Cancellation fee

$120.00

Data as of 02/23/2024.

How did we research this review?

Our fact-based research process centers around interviews with internet customers from across the country, helping us understand how internet services hold up against diverse needs and challenges.

To put together this review, we talked with 17 current and former Cox internet customers. We let their experiences guide our research and shape our conclusions. We looked closely at the fine print surrounding Cox’s plans, speeds, and prices, and we also looked into Cox’s efforts to build up its fiber infrastructure to provide a “fiber to the home” connection for customers.

For all our internet reviews, we give a rating based on three main criteria—speed and reliability, dollar value, and customer experience. We then average the ratings to make an overall score.

how we review products and services

The rundown: Cox internet by our criteria

What’s the skinny on Cox internet? Here’s the Reviews.org take.

Speed and reliability

internet speed
3.8/5.0

While it’s not one of Reviews.org’s five fastest providers, Cox still has formidable speeds. Looking at results from our speed test over the past year, Cox delivers average downloads of 160.347Mbps. That’s a great speed, ranking it higher than major competitors like Spectrum, AT&T, and Frontier. Cox also gets a respectable average upload speed of 26.442Mbps, which is much slower than a fiber provider but faster than many cable providers.

As for reliability, customers who spoke with Reviews.org gave a mixed picture. While many found Cox reliable, some mentioned frequent outage issues. “The download and upload speeds varied wildly,” said software developer Aaron LaBounty, a former Cox customer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

In terms of speed and reliability, a fiber internet provider capable of “fiber-to-the-home” connectivity will always be a better choice than Cox’s cable offerings. Fiber isn’t vulnerable to electromagnetic interference in the same way cable is, and fiber infrastructure tends to be newer, making it less likely to break down. On fiber internet, you can also get symmetrical upload and download speeds, giving you added bandwidth to handle video calls, livestreams, and other upload-heavy tasks.

Still, Cox holds its own against other cable internet competitors, and it has the edge on budget-friendly 5G home internet too. 5G providers Verizon and T-Mobile have been coming at cable customers hard with competitive pricing and lots of deals, but since 5G literally runs on cellular networks, 5G internet services are prone to all the interruptions you expect from your mobile devices.

Dollar value

dollar value
3.3/5.0

Unless you get a service bundle, Cox isn't the best deal. You can get faster speeds for a lower price from cable competitors like Xfinity and Spectrum—although the faster speeds you get from Cox, the better value your price is. And while you don’t have to fork over cash for a self-installation kit, you do have to deal with fees for renting a router and overage charges if you exceed your monthly data cap.

Opting for unlimited data costs an extra $49.99 a month. That’s simply not worth the price unless you’re a content creator or have a big family with lots of data users.

Cox offers some service bundle options that can reduce your monthly bills. The best bundle option is combining Cox Internet with a Cox Mobile, the company’s prepaid phone brand. A Cox Mobile phone plan costs between $15 and $45 a month, which is super affordable for a cellular carrier. Combining that with Cox Internet knocks $15 a month off your internet service.

Other Cox bundles let you combine your internet service with Cox TV, landline phone, or home security system—but the savings varies. M. J. Stevens, a customer in San Diego, pays for a bundle that combines Cox internet with a landline phone line and cable TV package. "But actually, if I ordered them separately, it would only be about five bucks more,” he said.

Customer experience

customer experience
3.8/5.0

Customer satisfaction surveys show that Cox gets mostly average scores compared to other internet providers. The cable company ranked sixth in the 2023 High Speed Internet customer satisfaction survey, scoring just above average compared to other major internet providers. On the other hand, Cox scored just two points below the average score in a 2023 report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

A lot of customers Reviews.org spoke to aren't happy with Cox. That could be in part because it’s a cable provider—and those companies tend to get a bad rap among internet customers for offering inconsistent service.

"The customer service representatives are a very mixed bag," lamented Audrey, a social worker in Louisiana. She told Reviews.org that she experiences frequent outages but finds Cox isn’t proactive in informing her that her service is down. Instead, she ends up informing Cox instead. "Every time there is an outage, I call it in, and shortly after, our app is updated to 'there's an outage/event in your area.'"

How long it takes to get a real human on the phone: approx. 1 minute. I had no trouble at all getting a customer service agent to help me on the phone. However, current and former Cox customers say reaching someone is often difficult due to lengthy wait times and delays.

How the chat service is: not useful. Cox's chatbot has a name (Oliver), and let's just say Oliver could use an upgrade. Unless you're ready to sign up for Cox services or have a basic question, he isn’t able to provide direct information in a timely fashion. Oliver can route you to a human sales agent over chat, but responses are slow, and the agent won’t answer any questions unless you provide an address and other identifying information.

Overall quality

overall quality
3.58/5.0

Cox is relatively reliable with surprisingly fast speeds. It's not the best value unless you bundle certain services, and it also needs some customer service improvement. But it’s well worth signing up for a Cox internet plan if you can’t get fiber in your area and you need faster and more reliable speeds than 5G home internet.

What Cox deals and promotions can you get?

Cox doesn’t offer a whole lot of deals or promotions to new customers. But you can save $14.99 a month on an internet package by getting a wireless plan through Cox Mobile, the cable company’s prepaid phone brand.

deals badge
Get $14.99 off the Go Fast, Go Faster, Go Even Faster, and Go Super Fast internet plans when you also sign up for Cox Mobile service.

Cox internet add-ons and perks


Unlimited Additional Data Plan

Sign up for unlimited data for $49.99/mo.


What do customers think of Cox?

To get a full picture of the Cox experience, I talked to Cox customers around the country (including quite a few from Tulsa—as the Tulsa subreddit was very responsive to my questions). Some folks said they’re satisfied or mostly satisfied with Cox as a provider.

“It's pretty easy to set up and doesn't require any weird cabling.” – Isaac Chandler

Isaac Chandler, an e-sports lounge manager who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, isn't in love with his Cox service. He feels the price is inflated for what he’s getting, and he’s experienced frequent-enough slowdowns and outages that he doesn’t find the service super reliable. But he’s still largely positive about the internet service.

"It's pretty easy to set up and doesn’t require any weird cabling,” he said. He’s also had positive experiences with customer service reps: “They solve my problems pretty quickly.”

But Chandler isn’t alone in thinking Cox internet is costly. Longtime customer M. J. Stevens also comments the service is too expensive for its value. "But I still do it because I get everything I need with a minimum of fuss and bother," he explained.

“Cox hasn't failed to provide me what I pay for.” – Peter Drennan-Hart

Many also think the customer service could improve.

Paul, a systems administrator in Tulsa, said his Cox internet service went down last summer due to a haboob, a type of extreme dust storm that regularly sweeps across Oklahoma in June and July. Technicians came by to repair the lines, but the work was piecemeal as they left behind a messy scene of downed coaxial cabling.

"We still have obvious Cox lines down in our neighborhood,” Paul told me. “They didn't actually replace the cable so much as [string] new cable, and they left the old cable lines just dangling off poles onto the ground where they dropped."

“[Customer service] hung up on me intentionally after telling me I was being abusive. I literally did not raise my voice at all.” – Lindsey Scotney, a Cox customer in Tulsa

Lindsey Scotney, who owns a hospitality staffing company in Tulsa, recounts having a difficult time recently with a customer service agent. She had an unlimited data plan and called because she suspected that her speeds were still being throttled, and he kept interrupting her as she tried to get answers.

“He hung up on me intentionally after telling me I was being abusive,” Scotney recalled. “I literally did not raise my voice at all and in a very calm voice just asked him to please let me finish what I was saying.”

Need to contact Cox customer service or tech support?

You can reach support through several different methods:

Digging deeper: Does Cox offer fiber internet?

Cox calls its internet service "fiber-powered," suggesting there's fiber in the cable network infrastructure but not in the connections running directly to residences (a connection known as “fiber to the home” or FTTH).

But it seems that Cox has been moving closer towards FTTH capability. Cox's website has a page that boasts about using a FTTH connection to provide internet for a sports stadium in Arizona, and recent maps from the Federal Communications Commission show that Cox has fiber infrastructure set up widely across its nationwide network footprint. The provider has been offering gigabit and multi-gigabit internet plans with symmetrical speeds—something that’s usually only available through fiber internet. The fastest plan reaches download and upload speeds of 2,000Mbps.

“I think they're making a legit fiber play,” said Austin Aguirre, a staff writer at HighSpeedInternet.com “The fiber backbones [on cable networks] have been creeping closer to the homes for a decade. Maybe it’s not such a big pull to complete that last stretch with fiber.”

A spokesperson didn’t respond to our requests for comment, but other experts have clarified that Cox’s fiber infrastructure isn’t the same as what you get from a provider like AT&T or Verizon: The National Advertising Division (NAD) recently recommended—in a claim filed on behalf of AT&T—that Cox tone down the “powered by fiber” claims, noting that Cox’s network delivers a fiber-optic connection to area nodes. The company uses coaxial cable with a traditional copper conductor to connect the “last mile” into peoples’ homes.

The company also offers proper fiber-to-the-home service, but the telecom media outlet Light Reading reported that Cox’s FTTH footprint is limited, rolled out “on a more limited and targeted basis.”

“I think they're making a legit fiber play.” – Cable internet expert Austin Aguirre on multi-gigabit cable speeds

It’s unclear how many of Cox’s customers can actually get a fiber connection to the home, but even customers on a cable connection can expect respectable speeds from Cox. Recent advances in technical standards (including DOCSIS 4.0 and Wi-Fi 6e) are enabling cable companies to offer multi-gigabit plan options and symmetrical speeds.

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Have thoughts about home internet?

We’re eager to hear from internet customers about their experiences with their home Wi-Fi. Contact us at info@reviews.org to share your thoughts, recommendations, and hot tips.

Where is Cox available?

Cox internet is present in 18 states across the United States, with availability scattered around the South, Midwest, and East and West coasts. Want Cox internet? Run a search with your zip code below to see if Cox is available in your area.

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Find out if you can get Cox Internet.

Cox vs. the competition

In terms of speed or price, Cox doesn’t hold a candle to fiber internet providers like Google Fiber and AT&T—the cable company simply can’t deliver the symmetrical speeds of a fiber-optic connection, which give users a huge boost for things like video calls, livestreams, and virtual reality. Many fiber providers offer faster speeds for around the same price, or even less.

Cox also doesn’t quite keep up with other major cable internet providers. The company doesn’t have as wide a reach as cable giants Xfinity and Spectrum, and both of the latter providers offer competitive promotional rates for the first year that might make a Cox customer rep sweat.

That said, Cox can still hold its own against 5G providers Verizon and T-Mobile. Both providers have raised their prices in recent months, and the instability of a 5G fixed wireless connection means it can’t match Cox for bandwidth and reliability.

Compare internet providers and prices

Provider
Prices
Download speeds
Upload speeds
Connection type
View plans
Cox Internet$9.95-$149.99^100-2000 Mbps5-100 MbpsCable
Google Fiber$70-$150°1000-8000 Mbps1000-8000 MbpsFiber
AT&T Fiber$55-$225**300-5000 Mbps300-5000 MbpsFiber
T-Mobile 5G Home Internet$60-$60††245-245 Mbps31-31 MbpsFixed Wireless
Verizon Fios Home Internet$49.99-$89.99‡‡300-2300 Mbps10-2300 MbpsFiber
Spectrum Internet®$19.99-$89.9930-1000 Mbps^^4-35 MbpsCable
Data as of 04/05/2023. Offers and availability vary by location and are subject to change.
^ Prices exclude taxes, surcharges, usage-based charges, certain equipment, and other fees or charges, which are subject to change.
° Plus taxes and fees. Upload/download speed and device streaming claims are based on maximum wired speeds. Actual Internet speeds are not guaranteed and may vary based on factors such as hardware and software limitations, latency, packet loss, etc.
** Price after $5/mo Autopay & Paperless bill discount (w/in 2 bills). Plus taxes $ fees. Limited availability. May not be available in your area.
†† w/ Auto Pay. Regulatory fees included in monthly price for qualified accounts. See full terms.
‡‡ Price per month with Auto Pay & without select 5G mobile plans. Fios plan prices include taxes & fees
^^ Limited time offer; subject to change; valid to qualified residential customers who have not subscribed to any services within the previous 30 days and who have no outstanding obligation to Charter.

Want Cox? Find it in your area.

Although some customers have their misgivings, Cox is worth trying out if you can’t get a more competitively-priced fiber provider to your home and you need fast, reliable Wi-Fi to handle all your streaming, gaming, and video calling needs. Enter your zip code below to see if you can get Cox where you live.

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See if Cox can install internet service at your address.
Brianne Sandorf
Written by
Brianne Sandorf
Brianne has a degree in English and creative writing from Westminster College and has spent 6+ years writing professional, research-based content. Before joining Reviews.org, she wrote safety and security content for ASecureLife.com. Her pieces and quotes are published across the web, including on MSN.com, Social Catfish, and Parents.com. Hobbies include wearing a seatbelt, wearing a life jacket, and keeping her arms and legs inside the ride at all times. Contact her at brianne@reviews.org.

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