How Many Devices Can Connect to a Windows Hotspot, and How to Connect More

The short answer: eight, in the default setup. The Mobile Hotspot built into Windows 10 and Windows 11 lets up to eight devices connect, and the Settings app has no option to change that.

If you have hit that ceiling (a family with several phones, a workshop full of tablets, a classroom, a house where the TV, console, speaker and doorbell all want in), this page explains where the limit comes from, what really decides how many devices a PC hotspot can carry, and the ways to connect more. One of them is Connectify Hotspot, a free Windows app that runs the hotspot itself and sets no device limit of its own.

Where the 8-Device Limit Comes From

The number comes from Windows. The Mobile Hotspot service caps how many devices may join the hotspot it creates, and it does not show that setting anywhere in Settings.

There is a registry value, WifiMaxPeers under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\icssvc\Settings, that some people report raises the limit to ten or more. Others report no change at all, so treat it as an experiment: back up the registry first and restart the PC afterwards.

Your Wi-Fi adapter also has a ceiling of its own, set by its driver. That ceiling still applies whichever software creates the hotspot.

How to Tell You Have Hit It

The symptom is not obvious, because Windows does not tell you. What you see instead:

• A ninth device says it cannot join, or sits at “obtaining IP address” forever.
• A device that worked yesterday no longer connects, because something else took its slot.
• Devices appear to take turns: one drops off and another gets in.

Open Settings → Network & internet → Mobile hotspot and count the connected devices. If it says 8 of 8, that is your answer. If it is showing fewer than eight and a device still cannot connect, you are looking at a different problem: usually the connection failing for another reason.

Option 1: Get Under the Limit

Sometimes the cheapest fix is to stop devices you do not care about from taking slots:

• Change the password. Every device that ever joined will keep rejoining automatically. A new password evicts the ones you have forgotten about.
• Turn off Wi-Fi on devices that do not need it right now: a spare tablet in a drawer will still hold a slot.
• Move the always-on devices to your router instead and keep the PC hotspot for the ones that genuinely need it.

This is worth ten minutes if you are only one or two devices over. It is not a solution if you routinely need a dozen.

Option 2: Use Software That Sets No Limit of Its Own

Connectify Hotspot does not limit the number of devices on any edition, including the free Hotspot Lite. How many can actually join depends on how it creates the hotspot. By default it uses Wi-Fi Direct, where Windows and your adapter’s driver set the limit. It can also use the older Microsoft Hosted Network, where it asks Windows for up to 20 devices, though many adapters stop earlier and many current adapters do not support Hosted Network at all.

1. Download Connectify Hotspot on your 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 PC and install it.
2. Turn off the built-in Windows Mobile Hotspot first. Running both at once causes exactly the kind of intermittent connection failure you are trying to escape.
3. Open Connectify Hotspot, choose Wi-Fi hotspot, and pick the internet to share: Wi-Fi, an Ethernet cable, or a phone plugged into the PC.
4. Click Start hotspot, then connect your devices with the network name and password, or by scanning the QR code on the Hotspot screen.
5. If devices stop joining once several are connected, go to Settings → Network → Wireless, turn off Prefer Wi-Fi Direct (and Tell devices to save data, which needs Wi-Fi Direct), and start the hotspot again. To check whether your adapter supports Hosted Network, run netsh wlan show drivers in Command Prompt and look at the Hosted network supported line.

How Many Devices Is Realistic?

Removing a software cap does not remove physics, and it would be dishonest to suggest otherwise. What actually determines your ceiling:

• Your Wi-Fi adapter and its driver. They decide how many devices can join at all, whichever software runs the hotspot.
• Your internet connection. Twenty devices browsing is fine on most broadband. Four devices streaming 4K is not, on any setup.
• What the devices are doing. Sensors, plugs and e-readers cost almost nothing. Video calls and game downloads cost a lot.
• Distance and interference. A PC hotspot is one radio in one spot, and it is not competing with a proper router’s antennas.

If you need thirty devices with heavy traffic across a whole building, buy an access point: that is what they are for. If you need ten to fifteen devices in one or two rooms, or you need this somewhere a router is not an option, a PC can do the job, provided your adapter supports that many.

The Other Windows Hotspot Limits Worth Knowing

The device cap rarely arrives alone. The built-in hotspot also:

• Switches itself off when nothing has been connected for a few minutes, unless you turn off Power saving.
• Puts connected devices on a separate network from the PC, which breaks casting and local discovery.
• Refuses to share some connections, including some VPNs, tethered phones and USB modems.
• Cannot extend the Wi-Fi network the PC is already on as the same network.
• Does not exist at all before Windows 10.

What Connectify Hotspot Adds When Many Devices Share One PC

• No device limit of its own: the ceiling is your adapter and your connection.
• Each connected device is named and listed on the Clients screen, with its live traffic and data used, so you can see who is using what.
• You can turn internet access off for any single device, without changing the password for everyone.
• With Hotspot MAX, Bridged mode places connected devices on your main network so they can see each other: useful once you have a TV, a speaker and a console on there.
• Built-in ad blocking across every connected device, which cuts ad traffic when there are a lot of them.

Need more than eight devices online? Download Connectify Hotspot free and see how many your PC’s adapter can carry.