Is 15 GB a month a lot?
In terms of usage, 0-4GB/mo is actually considered light use. Moderate is 5-10 GB/mo, heavy is 11-15 GB/mo, and extremely heavy is over 15GB+ a month.
Streaming Movies or TV
A 1080p HD 60 fps 2-hour movie averages 6 GB in file size. A 1080p HD 30 fps 2-hour movie averages 3 GB in file size. A 720p HD 2-hour movie averages 2 GB in file size. A Standard Definition (SD) 2-hour movie averages 1 GB in file size.
Streaming video
15GB gives you 21 hours of SD streaming. High definition (HD) streaming uses 2.5GB per hour. 15GB gives you just 6 hours of HD streaming.
Most people need around 600 GB of data per month for their home internet connection. That gives you enough data to stream movies, play online games, and participate in video conferencing calls.
How much mobile data does the average person use? The average person used 5.6GB of data per month in 2021, according to Ofcom's Communications Market Report 2022. That's a 24% increase on the 4.5GB used per month in 2020, which in turns is a 27% increase on the 3.6GB used per month in 2019.
Time duration with 20GB*
If you were going on a long road trip, you'd easily be able to watch Netflix for the entire journey. Remember though, if you run out of data, it won't refresh again until the following month, so it might be more useful to spread it out evenly across activities.
| Activity | 10GB data is equal to... |
|---|---|
| Rich e-mail/IM (with attachments) | 20,000 messages |
| Downloading or streaming music | 2,000 songs |
| Downloading or streaming video (SD) | 20 hours |
| Downloading or streaming video (HD) | 5 hours |
Standard definition uses up to 0.3 GB per hour. High definition (720p) uses up to 1 GB per hour. Full HD (1080p) uses up to 3 GB per hour. UHD (4K) uses up to 7 GB per hour.
Data used per hour, per device:
Standard definition: up to1 GB. High definition: up to 3 GB. Ultra high definition (4K): up to 7 GB.
Even on cell phone plans with unlimited data, there will be a cap for how much data you can use as a mobile hotspot. Once you reach that limit, the data will be deprioritized, which basically means your data speed will slow way down until your limit starts over the following month.
How much data does the average person use per month 2022?
Monthly household broadband consumption 2010 to 2022
The monthly average of data consumed by internet users in the same period was 513.8 GB, or over half a terabyte. This is up 11% from the 2021 4th quarter report.
Having unlimited data means you can use the internet as much as you want without facing internet slowdowns or overage charges. Some internet providers offer unlimited data with their plans, so you can stream, game, and attend Zoom meetings to your heart's content.
Activities that use a lot of data
High definition video streaming (900MB per hour) Video conferencing, like FaceTime® and Skype® (480MB per hour) Standard-definition video streaming (240MB per hour) Online interactive gaming (60MB per hour)
A 20GB data plan will allow you to browse the internet for around 240 hours, to stream 4,000 songs or to watch 40 hours of standard-definition video. Nowadays, the key difference between mobile phone price plans is how many gigabytes of data it comes with.
It can also feel a little esoteric and difficult to grasp. According to that OpenVault broadband study I mentioned earlier, it all adds up to the average US household using approximately 514GB of data monthly. That data usage number is steadily on the rise. It's up 11% from the same time in 2021.
According to Netflix, you use about 1GB of data per hour for streaming a TV show or movie in standard definition and up to 3GB of data per hour when streaming HD video.
480p: 562.5MB per hour. 720p: 1856.25MB (1.86GB) per hour. 1080p: 3.04GB per hour. 2160p (4K): 15.98GB per hour.
A minimum of 20 Mbps is recommended for 4K. This means just under 0.5 GB per hour for SD, approximately 1.1 GB per hour for HD, 2.25 GB per hour for Full HD, and 9 GB per hour for 4K. Disney+: Streaming on SD with Disney Plus uses about 0.7 GB per hour, while HD uses about 2 GB per hour.
High definition (720p) uses up to 1 GB per hour. Full HD (1080p) uses up to 3 GB per hour. UHD (4K) uses up to 7 GB per hour.
Live TV streaming uses about 1.4 GB per hour of HD video. That's more than double the amount of data that streaming movies or music videos use. So, if you're streaming live TV, you can expect to use about 2.8 GB of data per hour.
How long does 10GB of data last streaming?
A 10GB data plan will allow you to browse the internet for around 120 hours, to stream 2,000 songs or to watch 20 hours of standard-definition video.
Stream in SD when you can (and want to)
Being selective of what you watch in HD or 4K can save you a lot of data. Most streaming services like Netflix and Hulu let you choose the video quality under your account settings.
The average North American used 11.1 GB per month in 2020. But many people use a lot more than that. In this article, we'll help you figure out how much you need and how you can get a good deal on a data plan that meets your needs.
For the above average phone user, 50GB looks to be more than enough to last for a whole month's activity, particularly when you consider that you probably won't need to use your mobile data for that entire time if you have Wi-Fi at home.
A 1GB data plan will allow you to browse the internet for around 12 hours, to stream 200 songs or to watch 2 hours of standard-definition video.
A mobile hotspot uses a cell carrier's LTE or 5G connection to give you an internet connection. That means that even when you don't have a wire to connect your internet, you can still stream.