Start from an example household:
Your estimate
Fix the highlighted fields to update the estimate.
- Monthly data
- Average per day
- Per 30 days
- Largest activity
- With 20% allowance
Breakdown by activity (per month)
No usage entered yet. Add hours or GB above to see a breakdown.
Spread evenly over the month, this is an average of . Speed (Mbps) decides how fast things load; data (GB) is how much you use in total.
These are estimates. Actual use varies with apps, video quality settings and devices.
How the estimate works
Each activity uses an average amount of data per hour. The calculator multiplies the hours by that rate and by the number of days, then adds the monthly downloads and backups.
| Activity | Per hour |
|---|---|
| SD streaming (480p) | 1 GB |
| HD streaming (720p) | 1.5 GB |
| Full HD streaming (1080p) | 3 GB |
| 4K streaming | 7 GB |
| YouTube and social video | 1 GB |
| Video calls (HD, both directions) | 1.4 GB |
| Work apps without video | 0.2 GB |
| Browsing and email | 0.15 GB |
| Online gaming (playing) | 0.1 GB |
| Music streaming | 0.07 GB |
- Video rates follow streaming services' published figures: Netflix lists up to 1 GB per hour for standard definition, up to 3 GB for high definition and up to 7 GB for 4K. 720p sits between SD and Full HD.
- An HD group video call uses roughly 1.5 Mbps in each direction. Uploads count against most data caps, so calls and cloud backups are included in full.
- Music assumes about 160 kbps; the highest quality settings use about twice as much.
- Units are decimal: 1 GB = 1,000 MB and 1 TB = 1,000 GB, as internet providers use.
- Remote work counts only on work days. Everything else hourly counts on every day you enter in "Days per month".
- "Per 30 days" scales your average day to a 30-day month, so different month lengths can be compared.
Avoiding double counting
- TV and film streaming is entered once for the whole home, so a film watched together is not counted per person.
- Watching YouTube on the TV in Full HD? Count it under TV and film streaming, not under YouTube and social video.
- Gaming hours cover playing online only. Downloading games and updates is entered separately in GB, because one download can use more data than months of play.
- Video calls are separate from browsing, and work apps exclude calls, so a work day is not counted twice.
Speed (Mbps) is not the same as data (GB)
Speed is how fast data arrives, measured in megabits per second (Mbps). Data is how much arrives in total, measured in gigabytes (GB). A faster plan doesn't use more data by itself: a 4K film uses about 7 GB per hour on a 50 Mbps line or a 1 Gbps line. It just starts sooner and buffers less.
If your plan has a monthly data cap, compare the cap with this estimate. If it is uncapped, use the estimate to see where your data goes, and check that your speed is enough for the busiest hour, such as several people streaming at once.
Examples
Load any of these with the example buttons at the top of the calculator, then adjust them to match your home.
- Light, 1 person: an hour of HD streaming and half an hour of YouTube a day, browsing, some music and small backups. About 71.8 GB a month.
- Moderate, 2 people: two hours of Full HD streaming a day, an hour of YouTube each, some gaming, part-time remote work, and 40 GB of downloads and backups. About 354 GB a month.
- Heavy, 4 people: three hours each of 4K and Full HD streaming a day, two hours of gaming each, an average of two hours of video calls per person each work day, 150 GB of game downloads and 100 GB of backups. About 1,887 GB (1.89 TB) a month.
Streaming quality makes the biggest difference: the same three hours a day uses about 90 GB a month in SD but about 630 GB in 4K.