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How much data common apps use
Per hour, from the apps' own help pages or network data calculators. Real use varies with quality settings.
| Activity | Per hour | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Streaming video (SD) | 700MB | Netflix: Medium (standard quality) up to 0.7GB an hour. Vodafone UK and Telstra use the same 700MB figure. Netflix mobile app on Automatic is about 4 hours per GB (about 250MB an hour). Source |
| Streaming video (HD) | 3.0GB | Netflix: High, HD up to 3GB an hour (4K up to 7GB). Vodafone UK also uses 3GB an hour for HD. Source |
| YouTube (480p, typical on a phone) | 460MB | Orange Travel: 480p about 460MB an hour, 720p about 870MB, 1080p about 1.6GB. Telstra: 70MB per 10 minutes at SD (about 420MB an hour). YouTube does not publish official figures. Source |
| Music streaming (Spotify High, 160 kbit/s) | 72MB | Worked out from Spotify bitrates: Normal ~96 kbit/s is about 43MB an hour, High ~160 kbit/s about 72MB, Very high ~320 kbit/s about 144MB (Vodafone UK says just over 115MB an hour at 320 kbps). Source |
| Social media scrolling (Instagram feed) | 150MB | Orange Travel: Instagram feed 120 to 160MB an hour, Stories 150 to 200MB, Reels 250 to 300MB. Saily's calculator uses 150MB an hour for social media. Source |
| TikTok | 840MB | Mint Mobile: about 840MB an hour on default settings, about 360MB with Data Saver on. Source |
| Video calls (WhatsApp / FaceTime) | 360MB | Orange Travel: WhatsApp video about 5 to 6MB a minute (300 to 360MB an hour). HD calls use more: Telstra says one-to-one calls up to 1.5GB an hour, Saily uses 1GB an hour for HD video calls. Source |
| Voice calls over WhatsApp | 30MB | Orange Travel: 0.3 to 0.5MB a minute (15 to 30MB an hour). Telstra: a 10-minute Skype audio call about 10MB (about 60MB an hour). Source |
| Web browsing | 60MB | Three UK: most web pages use around 1MB, so about 60MB an hour at a page a minute. Saily's calculator uses 50MB an hour; Telstra says 15 to 75MB an hour for basic browsing. Source |
| Maps navigation (Google Maps) | 10MB | Orange Travel: about 5MB an hour for standard driving navigation, 10MB for public transport, 30MB with satellite view. Saily's calculator also uses 10MB an hour. Source |
| 10MB | Vodafone UK: 1GB is about 1,000 emails (about 1MB each), so about 10MB an hour at 10 emails. Plain text email is far less: Telstra says 40 emails without attachments is about 2MB. Source |
Use Wi-Fi for the big stuff
Download films and playlists at home or on hotel Wi-Fi. Streaming HD video is by far the biggest data user.
Drop the quality
Set Netflix, YouTube and Instagram to "data saver" on mobile. It can cut video use by more than half.
Offline maps
Download the map for where you're going. Navigation then uses almost no data.
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