DDoS Attack Bandwidth Calculator
Reviewed by Hamza Gujjar, Algorithm Architect & Software Developer
Last updated: July 27, 2026DDoS Attack Bandwidth Calculator
Network engineers and DDoS mitigation providers need to estimate how much bandwidth a volumetric attack could realistically generate in order to size upstream capacity and mitigation services correctly. This calculator models total attack bandwidth from botnet size and per-bot output.
Formula
Total Attack Bandwidth (Gbps) = (Bots x Bandwidth Per Bot in Mbps) / 1000
Saturation Ratio = Total Attack Bandwidth / Target Capacity
Example
50,000 bots each generating 1 Mbps against a target with 10 Gbps capacity:
Total = (50,000 x 1) / 1000 = 50 Gbps → Saturation Ratio = 50 / 10 = 5.0x (sufficient to fully saturate the target)
Educational Purpose Only
This tool is intended for defensive capacity planning - understanding how large a botnet would need to be to threaten a given amount of provisioned bandwidth. Real-world volumetric attacks frequently use amplification techniques (such as DNS or NTP reflection) that multiply effective attack bandwidth far beyond what compromised devices could generate directly, which is why modern DDoS defense relies primarily on upstream scrubbing centers and traffic-scrubbing infrastructure rather than simply out-provisioning raw bandwidth.