Video Streaming and Calls Are the Biggest Smartphone Data Drains, Engadget Explainer Says

Citing Ericsson's mobile traffic data report, Engadget said the world currently moves around 150 to 200 exabytes of mobile data each month, equal to 150 to 200 million terabytes. Ericsson forecasts global monthly usage will grow to 328 exabytes by 2031, more than double today's figure. The average smartphone now consumes more than 20GB a month, up from 4.9GB just a few years ago.

Video streaming and video calls are the biggest drains. The article said YouTube uses about 500MB per hour at 360p, roughly 2GB per hour at 720p, 3GB per hour at 1080p and more than 15GB per hour at 4K UHD. Netflix uses 300MB per hour on low quality, 700MB per hour on standard definition, around 3GB per hour on HD and up to 7GB per hour on Ultra HD. Amazon Prime Video's Good setting at 480p uses around 0.72GB per hour, its Better HD setting uses roughly 1.8GB per hour and its Best 4K setting consumes nearly 6.8GB per hour.

Video calls average around 500MB per hour, Engadget said, while group conferencing platforms like Zoom use more. A one-on-one Zoom call consumes about 540MB per hour at 480p, 1.08GB per hour at 720p and more than 1.62GB per hour at 1080p. Group Zoom calls use 810MB per hour at 480p, 1.35GB per hour at 720p and 2.48GB per hour at 1080p because Zoom downloads a separate audio and video stream for every participant.

Social media use varies widely. TikTok, which is mostly short videos, can use around 750MB to 1GB per hour depending on resolution. Instagram, including Reels, can use up to 1.5GB per hour. Facebook uses a more conservative 500MB per hour, but that can stretch to 1GB per hour with more video viewing. X uses as little as 50MB to 1GB per hour, and LinkedIn consumes around 120MB to 240MB per hour.

Software updates are another major but less obvious data user because many updates and backups happen in the background. A single iOS update can run from a few hundred megabytes to more than 12GB for a major release. Android updates follow the same pattern, with size varying by device and manufacturer. Cloud backups add to the total, though consumption depends on what is being backed up.

Music streaming uses relatively little data compared with video. At Spotify's highest quality setting, a song streams at 320kbps, or 144MB per hour; at default quality, an hour uses around 43MB. Apple Music's lossless audio uses roughly 720MB per hour, and Hi-Res Lossless can use as much as 2.9GB per hour.

Across nearly every category, Engadget said users can cut data usage by downloading content over Wi-Fi for offline playback. Once something is downloaded, it will not use the mobile data plan again.