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Data Usage

How much data does web browsing use?

Around 60MB per hour

Web browsing and data usage is determined by your browsing habits. Are you browsing websites with large amounts of images, audio, and videos? A text-heavy website or basic tasks like internet banking uses significantly less data than spending hours on Facebook or YouTube watching videos.

Basic web browsing uses around 60MB of data per hour. Some research suggests the average person spends 48 hours a month browsing the web, which equates to 2.88GB per month.

How much data does videoconferencing use?

Between 23MB to 2.4GB per hour
Data usage for video conferencing software including Zoom meetings or Cisco WebEx can vary greatly. For example, Skype uses approx. 23MB of data per hour for an HD-quality call between two people. However, as more people are added to a Skype call, data usage increases, resulting in around 64MB of data per hour for seven or more video attendees.

Zoom meetings typically requires a data range of up to 1.62GB per hour for a one-on-one video call at 1080p quality, which can stretch up to 2.4GB per hour for a group call.

How much data does video streaming use?

From 23MB to 2.4GB per hour Depending on the streaming service you use and the quality at which you’re watching. On the lower end of the scale, streaming 480p-quality videos on YouTube may use as little as 260MB per hour. Otherwise, high amounts of streaming such as 4k TV shows on Netflix or movies on Stan may use as much as 7GB per hour of playback. Here’s a breakdown of the approximate hourly data-usage ranges of popular streaming services:

Streaming Service	Minimum Data Usage	Maximum Data Usage
Netflix	300MB	7GB
Stan	570MB	7GB
Binge	450MB	1.8GB
Amazon Prime Video	700MB	7GB
Disney Plus	600MB	7.7GB
Foxtel Now	1.4GB	3.2GB
YouTube	260MB	2.7GB
ABC iView	800MB	2GB
SBS On Demand	100MB	700MB
10Play	585MB	1.6GB
9Now	820MB	1.4GB
Kayo	2.5GB	13GB
Hayu	300MB	700MB

How much data does Facebook use?

From 120MB to 1GB per hour
This amount is based on average time spent scrolling, commenting, and looking at images. However, watching videos on Facebook increases the amount of data used. Live-streaming demands the most data with as much as 1GB per hour for a 1080p stream.

How much data does gaming use?

From 50MB to 45GB per hour
Yes, that’s correct. Online gaming uses high amounts of data.

For example, downloading from scratch on PC uses 100GB download which equates to 45GB per hour when at a full 100Mbps NBN 100 download speed. Also, updates for games like Call of Duty can require more than 30GB.

Because of this large variance in data usage, gaming on a capped internet connection can be difficult to measure.

How much data does renting movies and TV shows use?

From 1.5GB to 3.4GB per hour
Using iTunes, Google Play, Microsoft Store, etc. will determine the size of content you consume, based on the compression systems they use for videos. Data amounts are also determined by the duration of a TV episode, season, or movie.

Expect to use around 1.5GB per hour for SD (480p), roughly 2.1GB per hour for HD (720p), and 3.4GB per hour for Full HD (1080p) playback. UHD content (2160p) data usage is nearly double the size of Full HD content.

Is 200GB or 500GB enough data for home internet?

While most internet providers offer unlimited data as standard, there are a few exceptions. Lower-speed NBN plans, home wireless, mobile broadband and other connection types often come with data caps - typically, around 200GB or 500GB. Some plans may divide data into “peak” and “off-peak” data, which limits how much data you can use depending on the time of day.

Unlimited data plans are best as these plans offer the best value.

However, if for some reason you can not access an unlimited data plan (or you don’t use enough data to see the need for one), a 500GB data plan should be enough. If you live by yourself or with one other person, 200GB per month may work.

The table below shows the type of streaming, the average data usage and amount per hour.

	200GB	500GB
Video Streaming	HD: 2 hrs/day SD: 8hrs/day	HD: 4 hrs/day SD: 16 hrs/day
Music streaming	1 hour per day	6 hours per day
Emails	50 per day	200 per day
Gaming	1 hour per day	4 hours per day
Social media	2 hours per day	4 hours per day
Video Conferencing	HD: 1 hrs/day SD: 5 hrs/day	HD: 3 hrs/day SD: 17 hrs/day
Web browsing	1 hour per day	6 hours per day

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