Category 6A is the sensible grade for anything installed in a wall, because it is specified for ten-gigabit operation over the full channel length. Category 5e remains entirely adequate for patch leads and for gigabit and 2.5 gigabit links.
A category describes what a finished channel is specified to carry. Choosing one is really a choice about how long the cable will be in the wall.
What the grades are specified to
Category 5e is specified to 100 MHz and carries gigabit operation over the full hundred-metre channel. It also carries 2.5GBASE-T over that distance, which is the reason that rate was defined at all.
Category 6 is specified to 250 MHz and carries 5GBASE-T over the full channel. Ten-gigabit operation over Category 6 is covered by separate published guidance at a substantially shorter distance rather than by the physical layer itself.
Category 6A is specified to 500 MHz, and its substantive addition is a limit on alien crosstalk — how much one cable interferes with the cables bundled beside it. That is what qualifies it for ten-gigabit operation over the full hundred metres, and it is the reason Category 6 is not so qualified.
Category 8 is specified far higher again, over a channel a fraction of the length, and belongs between equipment in a rack.
Why the answer differs for permanent runs and patch leads
A cable in a wall will be there for a long time and is expensive to replace. Equipment on either end of it will be replaced several times.
So the permanent run is where headroom is worth buying, and Category 6A is the grade that carries every copper rate currently on sale over the full distance. The cost difference over Category 6 is small relative to the cost of ever pulling the cable again.
Patch leads are the opposite case. They are short, cheap and trivially replaced, and Category 5e leads are perfectly adequate for gigabit links. Buy the grade that matches the run they complete, and replace them when the equipment changes.
What Category 6A costs you physically
It is a larger cable: greater outside diameter and a greater minimum bend radius. That changes how many runs fit in a length of trunking, how much room is needed behind a patch panel, and how tightly it can be turned into a corner.
On a long run through a tight route, that is a real constraint and it belongs in the plan rather than being discovered halfway.
The channel is the thing being graded
The hundred metres in the standards is a channel, and it is conventionally divided into ninety metres of fixed horizontal cable plus ten metres of patch leads at the ends. Every component in it counts.
A channel built from good cable and terminated onto lower-grade modules grades down to the modules. This is the usual reason a run assembled from the best cable on sale measures worse than expected, and it is why the category applies to the whole path rather than to the drum.
The practical answer
For anything going into a wall, ceiling or floor: Category 6A, terminated onto modules of the same grade. For patch leads: whatever grade matches the run, replaced as freely as any other consumable. For a link between two units sitting in the same cabinet: a lead of any adequate grade, or a direct-attach lead if the ports are optical cages rather than copper sockets.
The questions that come up before an order
Is Category 8 worth buying for a home?
No. It is specified over a channel a fraction of the usual length and was written for short links between equipment in a rack, not for a house. Buying it for a run between two rooms is paying for a grade whose defining property is a distance limit you do not want.
Does a higher category make a gigabit link faster?
It does not. A category is a ceiling on what the channel is specified to carry, and a gigabit link on a channel graded far above it still carries a gigabit. The extra grade is headroom for equipment you have not bought yet, which is a good reason to install it and not a reason to expect a change today.
Last reviewed 10 September 2026