How Much Data Is Your Streaming Service Using

Even though they might all stream in the same quality ranges (generally 480p to 4K for video, 128Kbps up to 320Kbps for audio), not all compression algorithms are created the same. How much data is your favorite streaming service using?

Netflix

Might as well start with the biggest data user of them all in the room, Netflix. According to the company’s website, the Netflix streaming service breaks down like this in terms of the amount of data they use for each connection:

300MB per hour on the lowest video quality700MB per hour for SD video quality3GB per hour for HD video quality7GB per hour for UHD (4K) video quality

This means if you have a 1TB cap (one of the more common cap rates in the United States), you could stream roughly 142 hours of 4K video before you reached your limit.

Hulu

Hulu is one of the most watched streaming services in the US, which means that anyone with a data cap should keep a close eye on how much data the services is sucking up. Here are the stats:

680MB per hour in standard def1.3GB per hour at 720p2.7GB per hour at 1080p

Hulu is one of the few streaming services that doesn’t offer any sort of 4K option, so data-conscious streamers won’t have to worry about that overloading their cap.

800MB per hour in standard definition2GB of data per hour in HD6GB of data per hour in 4K

Spotify

Because songs take up such a smaller footprint than video, you shouldn’t really have to limit much of your Spotify usage over a monthly basis, even if you are operating under an oppressively low data cap. That said, add up enough of these streams across enough devices, and it’s obvious how that impact could add up quickly. All that said, it’s also much easier to determine the rate at which Spotify will use your data since the bandwidth is tied directly to the quality of the music:

Normal quality (96Kbps) – 40MB of data per hourMedium quality (160Kbps) – 70MB of data per hourExtreme quality (320Kbps) – 150MB of data per hour

Wrap Up

As long as you’re responsible about what types of content you’re streaming and how often, it’s unlikely that you’ll break through your data cap using streaming alone if it’s 1TB or higher. That said, streaming combined with gaming, downloading, and general browsing can quickly break through even the largest caps, so be sure you budget your hours carefully, and always choose the streaming quality option that fits your limit best!