use your usage habits to help choose the best data plan.
An easy way to decide which usage plan is best for you is to look at which apps you use the most. Below are the apps that drain data most quickly. Just compare your use per hour on an average day to figure out how much you’re using monthly.
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Social Apps
1 hour per day on social media: 90MB -
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Streaming Music
1 hour per day streaming music: 43MB -
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Streaming Video
1 hour per day streaming video 600 MB-1.2GB.
If you regularly stream videos, 2GB will be too low for you. -
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Gaming
1 hour per day of connected gaming: 40-300MB If you regularly play games, 2GB will be too low for you.
Check Your Data Usage On Your Phone
You can also check your current month's usage on your phone: go to Settings > Connections > Data Usage. The screen shows your billing period and the amount of cellular data you've used so far.
Data Legend
These examples provide a guideline to the amount of data used per service.
- 1 email (sent or received), text only = 35KB
- 1 email (sent or received) with attachments = 350KB
- 1 minute of connected game play = 1MB
- 1 social media post = 250KB
- 1 standard webpage = 180KB
- 1 app, game or song download = 4MB
- 1 minute of streaming music = 1MB
- 1 minute of streaming video (SD) = 4.5MB
- 1 minute of streaming video (HD) = 16.5MB
Data Conversion
- 1MB = 1,024KB
- 1GB = 1,024MB
Note: Data usage varies per phone/device. The above examples are based on averages using a smartphone and are estimates only. The actual amount of data used for the described activity can vary significantly from the examples above.