Where the speed comes from
Most of Wi-Fi 7's speed per stream comes from two changes. Channels reach 320 MHz in the 6 GHz band, double Wi-Fi 6's 160 MHz, which the Wi-Fi Alliance credits with twice the throughput. And 4096-QAM puts 12 bits in each symbol instead of 10, which the Alliance puts at 20% higher transmission rates than 1024-QAM. The 320 MHz channels only exist in countries that open 6 GHz to Wi-Fi.
Together they give a stream rate of 2882 Mbps at 320 MHz, against 1201 Mbps for a Wi-Fi 6 stream at 160 MHz. That's 2.4 times the rate per stream.
Why you see two peak speeds
Spec sheets often quote 46 Gbps for Wi-Fi 7. That figure assumes 16 spatial streams, which early drafts allowed. The finished IEEE 802.11be-2024 standard has 8, which caps a single user at 23,059 Mbit/s, about 23 Gbps, on a 320 MHz channel. The Wi-Fi Alliance doesn't print a peak speed for Wi-Fi 7 at all.
Either way it's a lab number. A typical phone or laptop has two streams, and the access point has to match them.
What a phone or laptop gets
Intel rates its BE200 laptop card, which has two streams, 320 MHz channels and 4096-QAM, at 5.8 Gbps. Its AX210, a Wi-Fi 6E card with two streams and 160 MHz channels, is rated at 2.4 Gbps. The BE200's rate is 2.4 times the AX210's. In file terms, 5.8 Gbps is 725 MB/s before overhead.
Cisco's rule of thumb is that a good Wi-Fi test shows 65% to 70% of the reported rate. At 5.8 Gbps that's 471.3 MB to 507.5 MB each second. That's for one client, with a router that has matching hardware and a clear 320 MHz channel. The internet plan is often the real limit, so Wi-Fi 7 helps most with local copies, for example from a NAS.
Which features are optional
The Wi-Fi Alliance began certifying Wi-Fi 7 on January 8, 2024. The IEEE approved 802.11be-2024 on September 26, 2024 and published it on July 22, 2025, so the first devices shipped before the standard was final.
Multi-Link Operation (MLO), Multi-RU and preamble puncturing are mandatory for certification, while 320 MHz channels and 4096-QAM are optional. A router can be certified Wi-Fi 7 without either one, so check the spec sheet for channel width and QAM.
MLO lets a device send and receive over several links at once, such as 5 GHz and 6 GHz, which the Alliance says improves throughput, delay and reliability. Multi-RU lets one device use several resource units. Preamble puncturing lets a router keep using a channel when interference blocks a slice of it.