system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
You don’t need 218 in every situation, just a majority of voting members. If enough members decided not to vote for any speaker, then you only need 50%+1 of the votes cast to become speaker.
gpt
Yep, so if (for example) 11 Republicans decline to vote and the Dems all back Jeffries (as they have every other vote) he could become Speaker. It's incredibly unlikely that would happen, but it's not impossible.

Supposedly Republicans are trying to convince a number of Democrats to just step out during one of the votes so McCarthy can get a majority without anyone betraying their party, but there's almost no incentive for them to do so, especially since any promises made in exchange would not be trusted given McCarthy's track record with bipartisanship.