What is the maximum data rate and range of LoRa?

LoRa's data rate and range are not fixed — they are configurable tradeoffs controlled by the Spreading Factor (SF), Bandwidth (BW), and Coding Rate (CR). At SF7 with 500 kHz bandwidth and CR 4/5, LoRa achieves its maximum data rate of approximately 37.5 kbps (or about 50 kbps with the newer LR-FHSS modulation). At SF12 with 125 kHz bandwidth and CR 4/8, the data rate drops to roughly 183 bps — nearly 200x slower — but the receiver sensitivity improves by approximately 20 dB, dramatically extending range. Each step increase in spreading factor doubles the time-on-air for the same payload, halving the data rate but adding roughly 2.5 dB of link budget (approximately 30-40% more range in free space).

In terms of range, real-world performance depends heavily on environment, antenna design, and RF conditions. In urban environments with buildings and multipath interference, typical LoRa range is 2-5 km. In suburban or rural areas with clear line-of-sight, 10-15 km is achievable. Record-breaking experiments have demonstrated LoRa links exceeding 200 km in line-of-sight conditions (balloon-to-ground or mountain-to-valley), and 766 km has been achieved in extreme high-altitude balloon experiments. For practical system design, assume 2-5 km urban, 5-10 km suburban, and budget for gateway density accordingly. Sub-GHz frequencies (868/915 MHz) penetrate walls and foliage significantly better than 2.4 GHz (WiFi/BLE), which is LoRa's primary advantage for outdoor IoT deployments.

The tradeoff between data rate and range has direct implications for system design. A soil moisture sensor reporting a 10-byte reading every hour can use SF12 to maximize range — the 0.5-second transmission at 183 bps is perfectly acceptable. A livestock tracking device sending GPS coordinates every 5 minutes needs higher throughput and might use SF9 or SF10, accepting reduced range but keeping transmission time under 100 ms to conserve battery. LoRaWAN's Adaptive Data Rate (ADR) algorithm automatically adjusts the spreading factor based on link quality — devices close to the gateway use SF7 for speed and efficiency, while devices at the edge of coverage use SF12 for reliability. An important interview point: higher spreading factors increase time-on-air, which increases power consumption per packet and reduces the effective duty cycle — at SF12 in EU868 with a 1% duty cycle, a device can only transmit approximately 25 packets per hour with a 10-byte payload.