The world has grown extremely accustomed to staying connected at all times. People like nothing more than to stay updated with all the news, trends, and gossips which is why they use social media so much. But what if the access to the internet is taken away from you. Could you imagine spending a day without checking your Facebook or Instagram? For me at least, the answer is no! I remember when my Spectrum internet stopped working. Even though their support team fixed the issue, but I can still recall that feeling when every passing second felt like an hour.
In 2018 the average data usage reported per month for home internet was around 268.7 GB in the United States. Although there are multiple factors that affect a household’s data usage, let’s first see how much data is consumed in different activities.
How Much Data Is Utilized While Streaming?
There are different streaming platforms which means the data consumed will vary depending on the app you use to watch the video. Here are some of the stats of different sites.
#1. YouTube
- If you want to watch videos at a resolution of 480p then 562.5 MB of data will be used per hour.
- For enjoying videos at 720p resolution, 1.86 GB of data will be consumed per hour.
- If you decide to enjoy the video at a resolution of 1080p then 3.04 GB will be utilized per hour.
- 98 GB of your data will be consumed per hour for watching a video in 4K resolution.
#2. Netflix
- For watching videos in a standard definition then you can expect 1 GB of your data to be consumed per hour.
- If you like to enjoy your videos in HD then this will raise the usage of data to 3 GB /hour.
- For those who like to stream their videos in ultra-high-definition then your data of around 7 GB would be utilized per hour.
#3. Amazon Prime Video
- If you want to enjoy your video in 480p resolution then 800 MB of your data will be used per hour.
- For streaming videos in HD, 2 GB of your data will be consumed per hour.
- You can expect 6 GB of your data to be used per hour if you want to watch videos in 4K resolution.
How Much Data Is Used for Streaming Music?
Just like video streaming platforms, there are some apps that stream music as well. They don’t use as much data as compared to the former. Here are a few stats for you.
#1. Apple Music
- For streaming music at a high quality, 256 kbps of your data will be consumed.
- If you keep streaming music for an hour then 115.2 MB of your data will be used.
#2. Spotify
- If you stream music at the highest quality then 320 kbps of your data will be utilized.
- 144 MB of data will be used if you stream for one hour.
#3. Google Play Music
- You will be using 320 kbps worth of data if you decide to stream the music at top quality.
- If you keep streaming music for an hour then 144 MB of your data will be used.
#4. Soundcloud
- If you want to stream your favorite music in high quality then 128 kbps of data will be used.
- An hour of streaming will consume 57.6 MB of data.
How to Reduce the Average Internet Usage Per Month?
If you think that you are using way too much data then there are some ways that will help you reduce it. Here are a few of them.
#1. Switch Off Maps
The first thing you should do to save data is to switch off maps or GPS. This is because such services keep running quietly in the background and consume data.
#2. Change Browsers
This may come as a surprise but changing browsers can actually help you limit the data usage. For instance, Google Chrome compresses data on laptops and computers. However, if you don’t want to switch the browser then simply use its ‘light’ version. Doing this will help you reduce the data being used.
#3. Prefer Download Over Streaming
You can save your data by downloading the music you like instead of streaming it on different platforms.
#4. Stream at Low Quality
If you want to stream your favorite show but also want to save some data at the same time then consider streaming at low quality. This will save you a lot of data.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter if you are subscribed to a particular spectrum package that offers more data, it will eventually run out really soon if you are not careful with how you use it. Therefore, the next time you decide to stream a video or music, consider how much will each app consume the data. You can also look at the few points mentioned above in order to use and save your data wisely.
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