How Much Mobile Data Do I Need

How much data do I need?

v Oct 2021 by James Rogerson

How much data do I need?

Data allowance is at present the most of import part of a phone contract. Phone calls and texts have taken a back seat to Facebook Messenger, TikTok and WhatsApp, while spider web browsing, streaming and even working from our phones is something we're doing more and more than of.

Equally such, information technology's vital that you take enough monthly data. But yous besides don't want to be paying for unused information, which many people exercise.

To help yous become a handle on how much yous might demand we've covered all the common data-devouring activities, with information on how many precious megabytes they employ.

What are MB and GB?

Throughout this article we'll exist referring to information primarily in MB (megabytes) and GB (gigabytes). A megabyte is one,024 kilobytes (KB) or i,000,000 bytes. A gigabyte is 1,024 megabytes.

It'due south rarely useful to talk nearly data in smaller units than megabytes, as fifty-fifty the lowest data allowances are usually hundreds of megabytes, with the majority of allowances existence multiple gigabytes.

Although non referred to in this article, be aware that there are likewise megabits (Mb) and Gigabits (Gb). These sizes are tiny, with there being eight Mb in one MB, but it'southward worth existence aware therefore that a Mb is very unlike to a MB.

How much mobile data does the boilerplate person use?

The boilerplate person used four.5GB of data per month in 2020, according to Ofcom's Communications Marketplace Written report 2021. That'southward a 27% increase on the 3.6GB used per month in 2019, which in turns is a 22% increment on the 2.9GB used per month in 2018. Data employ has steadily increased every year included in the report too – with the stats going dorsum to 2013.

The study doesn't include figures for 2021, but with the growing availability of 5G and the ever-increasing information demands of modern applications, we'd expect data use will exist standing to grow rapidly.

Sample information plans and usage

In this section we'll requite yous an idea of what you can practice overall with popular monthly information allowances available on United kingdom mobile networks. Note that in all cases the figures we give are only estimates, and will vary based on the app/service y'all're using or the quality settings when streaming.

How much is 1GB of data?

1GB (or 1000MB) is about the minimum data assart you're likely to want, equally with that you could browse the web and check electronic mail for upwardly to around xl minutes per day. That's still non much, but should be fine for lighter users. That said, social media apps tin use quite a lot more, with just 20 minutes of Facebook apply a twenty-four hour period potentially using upwardly a 1GB data allowance, based on figures from Wirefly.

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Music is feasible too – using Spotify's normal quality setting you'll use around 45MB per hour, significant you lot could stream for upwardly to around 22 hours per month, or for upwards to around 35 minutes a solar day on average. That'south fine for a short daily commute, but only if you're not using your phone for other types of data.

And for the highest quality streams you can expect to use effectually iii times as much information equally that, and so this certainly won't be plenty for audiophiles.

Video isn't much of an pick for anyone, with a couple of films likely to kill your allowance, depending on the quality y'all stream in. On Netflix for instance, data use ranges from around 1GB of data every half dozen hours for low quality to 3GB or more every 1 hour for loftier quality, and some services will use more.

1GB data sample monthly usage:

xl minutes daily of spider web browsing
Or twenty minutes daily of social media apps
Or 22 hours per month of music
Or 1-2 films per month (low or medium quality)

How much is 2GB of information?

2GB of data (or 2000MB) a calendar month is a plan aimed at those who don't use mobile data often, but is enough to browse the web for around 80 minutes a solar day, or use social media apps for at least effectually forty minutes per twenty-four hours. All the same, it is non suitable for those who stream lots of movies, or want to sentry a lot of other videos.

2GB data sample monthly usage:

80 minutes of daily web browsing
Or at least 40 minutes of daily social media
Or 45 hours per month of music
Or 3-iv films per calendar month (depression or medium quality)

How much is 4GB of information?

With 4GB of data (or 4000MB) yous're approaching the lower mid-range of data use. Web browsing, social media and electronic mail should be nothing to worry most unless you lot're using mobile information much of the day, as you could spider web scan for up to around 3 hours daily on average, or utilise social media apps for at least half that.

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If you're happy with just around forty minutes of daily browsing you could also stream around ii hours of music each twenty-four hours, striking a nice balance between the 2. Or you could cut the music and stream a few movies on low or medium video quality. If yous're a binge-watcher though this all the same won't cut it.

4GB data sample monthly usage:

3 hours daily of web browsing
Or at least 90 minutes of daily social media
Or 40 mins of browsing and 2 hours of music daily
Or 40 mins of browsing daily and a few films each month (medium quality)

How much is 8GB of information?

With 8GB of data (or 8000MB) we're in comfy video streaming territory. Apply all your information on that and you could stream up to around 32 hours of content on medium quality – more than than the length of a serial boxset, though of grade turning the quality up substantially cuts that figure down. On the highest quality you might barely manage two hours – though again, these figures vary depending on the service y'all're using.

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Assuming you don't want to stream daily you should be able to web browse and heed to music for 40 minutes or more each per twenty-four hours, every bit well as streaming a moving-picture show or a few episodes of a bear witness once or twice a week.

8GB information sample monthly usage:

6 hours daily of web browsing
Or at to the lowest degree 3 hours daily of social media apps
Or plenty to stream 32 hours of medium quality video
Or enough for a mix of browsing, music, and the occasional video

How much is 20GB of information?

20GB of information (or twenty,000MB) ups those figures essentially. With that much monthly data you could on average stream around 4 hours of music, scan the web two hours and stream an episode of your favourite show every day, or potentially even a film. Or if you're not interested in streaming y'all could browse all the websites you want without being in much danger of running out of data.

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20GB data sample monthly usage:

2 hours of web, iv hours of music and 1-2 hours of video daily
No danger of running out of information if yous're only web browsing

How much is 50GB of information?

With 50GB of information (or 50,000MB) you're looking at several hours of music streaming, several hours of spider web browsing and a couple of movies (streamed in medium quality) every day. This is more data than most people are likely to need, but worth information technology if you like to stream on your commute or don't have regular access to Wi-Fi at home.

50GB data sample monthly usage:

three hours of web, three hours of music and two medium quality streamed films daily

How much is 100GB of data?

100GB data (or 100,000MB) is functionally almost unlimited. Even with video streamed in high quality you could manage around 30 hours a month (depending on the source). Chances are you don't need that much, or would be fine with medium quality, which gives you lot a lot more.

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Realistically that ways you lot can stream both audio and video for several hours each day, besides as browsing the web and using social networks exclusively on mobile data, and are still likely to take some going spare at the end of the month.

100GB data sample monthly usage:

30 hours of high-quality video per month
Or a robust mix of utilise types

Need even more data? Then y'all'll want an unlimited data plan so you can browse without limits.

Data calculator

Data Calculator

Web Browsing

Social Networking

Emails

Music

Video

TV & Pic Streaming

Apps & Games

0MB per calendar month

We've created a helpful data estimator and so you can find out exactly how much data you need.

Only use the sliders to select how much of each activity y'all undertake and your full monthly data use volition be calculated automatically.

Data usage by activity

In this section we'll comprehend the different information uses – and how heavy on your data allowance they are. These are all rough estimates, as actual information use will depend on the app/service, the quality, and other factors.

Activity	Boilerplate information use (per hour)
Spider web browsing/Social media	20-120MB
Instant messaging	50MB
Email	one-100MB (depending on attachments)
Music streaming	45MB
Video streaming	250MB
Online gaming	3-300MB
Video calling	200-300MB

Web browsing/Social media

Spider web browsing tends to be fairly light on your allowance, with each page you view averaging around 1MB of information. That said, social media tin can apply more, with Facebook for example oft using around 2MB per minute.

Web browse continuously for an hour and y'all're likely to gyre to around fifty pages, for around 50MB of data use, while on the Facebook app an hour's use (with no video content) will likely come in at effectually 120MB. That said, unlike social media services will use different amounts of data.

In either instance that'southward not much, but it can apace add upward. If you're using your phone to web browse over mobile information for an hr each twenty-four hours you could chew up as much as 3GB per month on web browsing alone, with social media potentially using fifty-fifty more.

Consider whether y'all actually do that though – you'll probably exist on Wi-Fi a lot of the time, and so mobile web browsing volition likely merely happen for the most office when you're exterior or on a commute. As such, your actual utilise may well be far less than an hour each 24-hour interval, fifty-fifty if y'all're an cyberspace addict.

Messaging

If you do a lot of instant messaging using the likes of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, that could use up to effectually 150MB per day – but notation that figure is for if y'all're using these services as your main messaging platforms, exchanging dozens of messages each twenty-four hours, and doing it all over mobile information.

Realistically if y'all spend nearly of the day on Wi-Fi or don't use these services much yous'll probably be using less than 50MB a twenty-four hour period – though as with web browsing that tin notwithstanding add together upward.

Annotation that we're simply talking nigh sending instant messages here – not voice or video calls, which volition use a lot more data. A video call on WhatsApp for example will use around 5MB per infinitesimal, co-ordinate to TechWithTech.

Streaming music

If y'all tend to stream music on services such as Apple Music, Spotify or Amazon Music when you're out and about you lot could be eating up betwixt around 10MB and 150MB of data per hour (depending on service and quality). Those are the verbal ranges you're looking at on Spotify as yous move between low and very loftier quality, according to WhistleOut, with around 45MB being used on normal quality.

Listen on normal quality for an 60 minutes every day and that'due south almost ane.5GB per month before you've even done anything else, and that figure triples for audio in the highest quality.

Just again, consider how much yous actually do this. You'll likely be on Wi-Fi much of the fourth dimension, or playing music that's already downloaded to your phone. And an hour each twenty-four hour period is quite a long time. Fifty-fifty if you practice information technology on your commutes you lot probably won't be doing it on weekends.

Streaming video

Streaming video, such every bit using YouTube and Netflix, will depend on the service and the video quality. Some platforms give you controls, such equally Netflix, which lets you lot use upwardly to about 1GB of data every 6 hours if you stream in low quality (known as 'save data' on the mobile app), 1GB every 4 hours for medium quality (called 'automatic' in the app, but designed to strike a residue), and 3GB or more than every 1 hour if you lot stream in loftier quality.

You definitely shouldn't exercise that unless you accept unlimited data, but even at low or medium quality Netflix (and video streaming in full general) will consume more than information than near anything else you might do on your smartphone. And some streaming services likely utilize a lot more data than Netflix.

So if you lot plan to stream a lot of video over mobile information you will want a loftier information limit, of probably at to the lowest degree around 15GB per month. Note however that information use on Netflix is also higher than on some other video services, so it's worth checking the details of whatever services you utilize most.

Downloading apps

There shouldn't be much need to regularly download apps – or anything else – over mobile data, every bit this unremarkably isn't urgent or you can download them earlier you get off Wi-Fi.

But, if you must download apps, exist certain to cheque the file size. These tin vary from a few dozen megabytes to multiple gigabytes – though the latter is unremarkably only the case for games.

Checking e-mail

If y'all apply your phone to bank check your email over mobile data every day you'll still likely simply utilize around 150MB of data per month (unless y'all live in your inbox or ship/receive lots of emails with attachments). So this eats a lot less data than most things and isn't something y'all need to overly worry most unless you lot have a small-scale information limit of 1GB or less.

Uploading photos

This is another very small information drain. You'll ordinarily be able to upload several photos to cloud storage or social networks before yous've fifty-fifty used 10MB of data, so unless you're uploading thousands this shouldn't have much impact. That said, this will depend on the file size of the images you lot're uploading. If your telephone's camera is packed total of megapixels and yous shoot using all of them, and so photo file sizes could be quite a lot larger.

Video calls

Video calls, such as on Skype, Facebook and Zoom, tend to employ around xv-25MB of data for a 5-infinitesimal call, so if you tend to keep your calls short or don't make many of them this kind of data apply shouldn't add together up too much, simply if you're video calling people for hours at a time information technology could practise.

A 1 hr video call could employ up to around 300MB of data – which still isn't all that much, but do that regularly and it could easily full 1GB or more each month.

Tethering

Tethering volition typically utilize a lot of data. Even if you're just web browsing for example, you'll generally be getting the full desktop versions of sites (since you'll probable exist viewing them on a tablet or laptop) and these employ more data than mobile versions.

Similarly, video is likely to stream in college quality, equally the services will think you're on a Wi-Fi connection (Netflix for example can use up to 7GB per hour if streaming 4K video on a PC), and if you tether to a tablet and have information technology set to automatically update apps over Wi-Fi, those updates volition happen while you're tethering.

As such, this is some other kind of data use that demands a high allowance if you plan to do it a lot. Retrieve 20GB minimum.

Does 5G use more data?

5G doesn't use any more data than 4G. So if you download a file over 5G information technology will be the same size as if you download it over 4G – it will only download faster with a 5G connection.

However, the speed of 5G means that information technology'due south more than viable to download big files and stream in higher quality and the like, so it could motivate you to use more data.

Some video streaming apps and the like may also default to college quality if they detect a 5G connection, which will then use more information. But you lot should be able to switch to lower quality if you prefer, you lot'll just need to await out for this.

Decision

Overall usage	Data per month
Lite	1GB+
Medium	6GB+
Heavy	20GB+
Very heavy	30GB+

And so there yous have information technology. Hopefully with this information you'll accept a amend idea of how much data you actually need. But, if we assume that y'all tend to mostly use Wi-Fi and don't exercise much tethering or video streaming, it's very probable that you lot tin go by on under 6GB per month (quite possibly far under).

If yous're simply a calorie-free user – occasionally using instant messaging, web browsing and email checking for case, simply not much else, then you may even be okay on 1GB, though nosotros'd exist wary almost having a lower data allowance than that unless you actually don't use information technology at all.

Meanwhile, if y'all're using mobile data much of the 24-hour interval, every solar day, or using data intensive things like video streaming and tethering regularly, you lot'll probably want at to the lowest degree 30GB – and fifty-fifty that might not exist plenty.

Bold you currently have a information allowance yous should be able to cheque how much you're using each calendar month past logging into your account on your network's site or app, so that too tin can give yous a good thought of what y'all need. Do that, compare it with the figures here, and you should be able to work out a comfortable limit.