Let's be honest, unless you only use your data very rarely, 2GB of mobile data isn't going to be enough per month for the average phone user. This is how long you can expect to be able to use popular apps on just 2GB of data a month: Netflix: 2 hours. Instagram: 2.5 hours.
Browsing the net with 2GB will last for around 33 hours. So you could browse for around one hour per day before reaching your limit. Similarly, you could use social media for less than an hour each day.
With your 2GB of data, you'll be able to browse the internet for approximately 24 hours per month, to stream 400 songs online or to watch 4 hours of online video in standard definition.
How much data do I use per month? On average, North American internet users consumed 536 GB of broadband data per month in 2021. That's an 11% increase from the same time period in 2020.
In simple terms, 2GB of data is 2,000MB of data. If that doesn't make things any clearer, let's put it this way. 2GB of data will allow you to browse the internet for approximately 24 hours, depending on what you're going to be doing online.
According to Netflix, you use 1 GB of data per hour when you stream a standard definition (SD) video. High definition (HD) videos, on the other hand, use 3 GB per hour. And 4K Ultra HD streams use up to 7 GB per hour of video.
To ensure you never run out of data, you'll probably need a monthly data allowance of around 20GB.
Indeed, according to NPD, the average U.S. smartphone user now consumes a total of 31.4 GB of data on a monthly basis (a figure that includes both Wi-Fi and cellular consumption). That's up fully 25% from a year prior.
The weighted average reached 495.5 gigabytes in Q3 2022, a smidge ahead of 490.7GB average seen in Q2 2022, and a 13.9% increase from the year-ago average of 434.9GB, said OpenVault.
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)
You can send and receive text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messages through the Messages app . Messages are considered texts and don't count toward your data usage. Your data usage is also free when you turn on chat features.
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. Nowadays, the key difference between mobile phone price plans is how many gigabytes of data it comes with.
Mobile data is used in the background by some apps. If you keep it turned on, it will still be consuming your allowance even if you're not actively doing anything on your phone. Things get worse if you allow your apps to update using data.
1GB,3GB and 30GB is capable of the following: 1GB a month is roughly enough to: Browse for 11 hours. Send 16,000 emails without attachments or 300 with attachments.
Time duration with 1GB*
As you can see, a 1GB bundle is quite small, and doesn't allow you to do a lot each month before it runs out. For reference, there are 720 hours in an average month, so if you watched one hour-long Netflix episode in standard definition, you'd be out of data!
If you are only planning to use mobile data for simple tasks such as Google, music and directions, you will not need more than a few GBs per week.
How many hours will 5GB of data last for? Theoretically, you could browse the internet for eight whole days without stopping before hitting your 5GB limit! In a more practical example, you could browse for a couple of hours every few days for the entire month.
30 minutes HD content = 1.1GB. 1-hour HD content = 2.2GB. 1-hour 4K or HDR content = 5.1GB.
Overall, for most casual smartphone users 64GB phone memory is enough, although many people prefer to choose between 128GB and 256GB. Those who use their mobile phone to the absolute maximum should consider phones with storage of 512GB and 1TB to avoid running out of storage space and suffering with a slow phone speed.
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.
This means you'll use around 2 GB to stream a two-hour SD movie, 6 GB to stream the HD version or 14 GB for the 4K stream. A half-hour TV show would be 500 MB for the SD version, 1.5 GB for the HD version or 3.5 GB for 4K.
How much is 10GB of data? According to Ofcom, the average person uses around 2.9GB of data per month, a statistic which is rising each year with the evolution of technology. That means 10GB is most likely more than enough for the average phone user.
A Wi-Fi connection lets you connect to the Internet without using any cellular data at all. While connected to Wi-Fi, you can also download videos, TV shows, or movies to your phone or SD card to watch anytime at your convenience, with no data required.
After turning off mobile data, you'll still be able to make and receive phone calls and get text messages. But you won't be able to access the internet until you reconnect to a Wi-Fi network. Most people have Wi-Fi at home, at work and at random food-and-beverage establishments such as Starbucks.