Is Starlink available in my area? A step-by-step check

To check whether Starlink is available in your area, type your exact address on Starlink’s availability map at starlink.com/map, then start an order at checkout with the same address and the plan you’d choose. The map tells you whether service is offered and whether the area is sold out. Checkout tells you which plans you can actually order and whether a one-time demand surcharge applies. Finish with the Starlink app’s obstruction check at the spot where the dish would go.

As of October 6, 2026, Starlink’s reactivation article says “there are currently no sold-out regions in the United States.” So for most US addresses the real questions are whether service is active at that exact address, what checkout adds, and whether your sky is clear enough.

The four-step check

Step 1: the map

Go to Starlink’s availability map and type the address where the dish will be used: your service address, not a mailing address. Starlink’s own articles point here to check availability and capacity. Note what it shows: offered, sold out, or nothing.

What the map can’t tell you is covered in how to read the availability map.

Step 2: checkout

Start an order with the same address and the plan you’d actually buy. Watch for three outcomes:

• An order you can place. Service is available on that plan. Go to step 3.
• A deposit offer, or “sold out.” Starlink: residential service “is at capacity and residential service activations are currently not possible.” See how the waitlist works.
• Only Roam offered. Starlink’s activation article: “Standard and Priority plans cannot be activated in capacity-limited areas,” and you can’t switch from Roam to Standard or Priority “until your area has available capacity.”

Step 3: the surcharge line

Before you place the order, read the summary for a “demand surcharge” line. Starlink says it’s set by “your service address” and “the service plan selected,” and the map doesn’t show it. Write down the date, plan and amount, then stop. Details: check for a surcharge before you order.

Step 4: the sky

Starlink: “Objects such as a tree branch, pole or roof, that obstruct this connection between Starlink and the satellite, may cause service interruptions.” In the Starlink app, choose “Check for Obstructions” and scan from where the dish would sit, with the phone “as close as possible to the height and perspective of Starlink.” Starlink recommends doing this “prior to ordering” in heavily obstructed areas. Installation and fixing obstructions are outside what we cover.

Four tools, and what each can tell you

About the FCC map. The FCC’s National Broadband Map, at broadbandmap.fcc.gov, “displays where internet services are and are not available across the country, as reported by internet service providers,” as Tennessee’s broadband office describes it. You search your address and see the service reported there. If a listed service isn’t actually available for purchase, or your location is missing, the map accepts a challenge. It’s the quickest way to see what else might be at your address before deciding on Starlink.

What each result means

Worked example (hypothetical)

A household in a rural county runs the four steps:

1. Map: service shown, not sold out.
2. Checkout: Residential can be ordered. Good.
3. Surcharge: the summary shows one. They note “Oct 6, 2026 · Residential · surcharge shown · amount · county,” and stop.
4. Sky: the app scan from the shed roof is clear.

They also look up the FCC map and see a fixed-wireless provider reporting service at their location. Now they’re comparing real options: Starlink with a known one-time fee, or the local provider. To put the surcharge inside a full first-year figure, the year-1 cost calculator on our sister cost site includes it.

When Starlink is the wrong choice

• Checkout shows a large surcharge and you have fiber, cable or 5G home internet that works. Keep it; re-check later.
• Your only clear spot is still heavily obstructed. Starlink itself warns of interruptions.
• You’d need to use a different address to get a better answer. Service is only guaranteed at the service address on your account. See why a friend’s address backfires.

Privacy: who sees your address

You have to type your address into Starlink’s map and checkout. That’s the only place it needs to go. A third-party site offering to “check Starlink availability” for you would have to type it into Starlink’s site anyway. This site never asks for your address; our reports use the county only, and say why on the method page.

Special cases

Buying a home or building

Run steps 1 and 4 for the property before you commit, using the exact house site. A map answer is a snapshot, and a sky check at a bare lot can change once the house and trees are in place. If you’ll move an existing Starlink there, read the move rules in changing your service address: a move into a high-demand area “may” require a new surcharge.

Renting

The service address is where the dish will be used, which is the rental. Check with the landlord about where a dish can go before running the sky check, and remember that moving out later is an address change.

A second home or cabin

A second home is a separate service line with its own address, its own availability and its own surcharge evaluation, because Starlink applies surcharges “per service line, not per account.” Using a Residential dish from your main home at the cabin without updating the address “may result in loss of connectivity or reduced performance,” Starlink says.

How long your answer stays good

Every result in this check is for the moment you ran it. Starlink says availability is “subject to change” and that surcharge amounts “may change based on network capacity and regional demand.” If you’re not ordering right away, write down the date and each result, then repeat the check when you’re ready to decide. Comparing two dated checks tells you more than either one alone.

What “available” doesn’t promise

An order you can place means Starlink will activate service at your address. It doesn’t promise a speed. Starlink’s plan pages give typical ranges (for Residential Max, “up to 400+ Mbps” download and 20–40 Mbps upload; the 200 and 100 Mbps plans are capped), and its slow-speeds article says that during peak hours, “typically between 6pm and 11pm local time,” you “may experience varying or slower speeds.” Our county speed cells will show what readers actually measured once a county has 20 unobstructed tests; until then, the plan ranges and the peak-hour note are the honest expectation.

What we don’t know

• Whether the map is plan-specific. Starlink describes plan differences at checkout and activation; its articles don’t say whether the map reflects them.
• How often availability changes. Starlink says only that it’s “subject to change.”
• What readers in your county saw. No county has reached our 5-report threshold yet (0 reports as of October 5, 2026).

Common mistakes

• Stopping at the map. It doesn’t show the fee or your sky.
• Typing a mailing address. Use where the dish will be.
• Buying hardware before checking checkout. A store kit doesn’t change what your address allows.
• Ignoring other providers. The FCC map takes a minute.

What to do next

1. Do steps 1–4 now; it takes about ten minutes.
2. Our coverage guide has the same order in short form.
3. If checkout showed a surcharge, $0 or sold out, add it to the record. We ask for your county, never your address.