A method for improved efficiency for massive MIMO adaptation. In an embodiment, method for operating a network component in a massive MIMO network includes obtaining, by the network component, one or more network parameters; determining, by the network component, a number of active antennas in a massive MIMO AP to use for transmitting in one time frame according to the one or more network parameters, the number of active antennas selected being less than a total number of antennas available in the massive MIMO AP; and serving one or more UEs using the determined number of active antennas. Other embodiments reduce the number of beamformers utilized according to network parameters. In still other embodiments, a number of data streams to transmit and a corresponding number of users to be served in a time frame by a massive MIMO AP is reduced.