Phone Data Usage Calculator

Work out phone data usage instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Phone Data Usage Calculator

Video dominates mobile data: roughly 0.5 GB per hour at 480p, 3 GB at 1080p and 7 GB at 4K. Music streaming is trivial by comparison at about 70 MB per hour, so the quality setting on video is the single biggest lever on a data allowance.

Formula

Data usage

total = video hours x rate for quality + music hours x 0.07 + other usage

Worked example

With the default values below, Phone Data Usage Calculator returns Monthly data usage of 50.10. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Video streaming per month: 14 h
Video qualityone of Low (480p), Standard (720p), HD (1080p), 4K: HD (1080p)
Music streaming per month: 30 h
Browsing, social and apps: 6 GB

Results

Monthly data usage: 50.10 GB
Video data: 42.00 GB
Music data: 2.10 GB
Daily average: 1.65 GB

Step by step

1Values used
2Data usage
3Monthly data usage= 50.10 GB
4Video data= 42.00 GB
5Music data= 2.10 GB
6Daily average= 1.65 GB

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is 4K so expensive in data terms?

Four times the pixels of 1080p plus higher bitrates for HDR. On a phone screen the visible benefit is minimal, so capping quality to 1080p saves most of the data for free.

Does Wi-Fi usage count?

Not against a mobile allowance. Only cellular data counts, which is why offloading video to Wi-Fi is the simplest fix for overage.