Streaming
This activity uses up a lot of data, whether you’re streaming movies or shows. You could easily consume between 3GB and 6GB of data per hour if you stream in high definition. Standard definition consumes about 1GB per hour. Music streaming consumes a lot less than video streaming. You can stream about seven hours of music and consume about 1GB of data.
Gaming
A game like Fortnite will consume about 1GB of data for 42 rounds. A software patch for a game requires anything between 1 and 3GB. People generally buy digital versions of games which require them to download the entire fame into their system. Some games require downloads to the tune of 30GB before you can start playing.
Emails And Browsing
These two activities don’t need a lot of data. Sending and receiving 1,000 emails requires about 1GB of data. Surfing the web also consumes about 1GB for 20 hours of surfing, not including videos and social media.
Overage
If you go over your data cap, you could be subject to overage fees. For example, for every 50GB you consume over your data cap, you may be charged $10. These fees can add up quickly. Some providers won’t charge you extra but throttle your connection speed to anything between 1 and 5Mbps. This renders your connection useless for anything except basic web surfing.
Reduce Usage
There are some things you could do to reduce your data consumption. The first thing to check is the quality of video and music streaming. If you stream in HD, it requires about three times the data you would consume if you streamed in SD. If you stream in 4K, you’ll consume seven times the data as compared to SD. So, edit the quality settings if you’re interested in saving data. You can do something similar with music. Providers like Spotify offer low, normal, high, and very high streaming quality options that you can access from your account settings. You can also change the quality of the music you download.
Free Data
Your internet provider may offer free data during off-peak hours that won’t count towards your monthly allowance. These time periods are usually between 2 am and 8 am.
