Monthly data usage calculator
Enter the total hours per day your household spends on each activity, added up across everyone. You get an estimate of monthly usage and how close it comes to your data cap.
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
How it’s calculated
Each activity uses data at roughly the rate its service recommends. One hour at 1 Mbps moves 3,600 megabits, which is 450 MB, or 0.45 GB. Download and upload are added together, because most data caps count both:
GB per hour = (down + up Mbps) × 0.45 GB per month = GB per hour × hours per day × 30.4 days
Two hours of 4K a day at 20 Mbps is 20 × 0.45 × 2 × 30.4 ≈ 547 GB a month. Three hours a day of 1080p video calls (3.8 down + 3.0 up) adds about 279 GB.
Worked example: a busy household
| Activity | Hours per day | GB per month |
|---|---|---|
| 4K video | 2 | 547.2 |
| 1080p video calls | 3 | 279.1 |
| 1080p video | 2 | 136.8 |
| Online gaming | 2 | 109.4 |
| Browsing, email, social | 6 | 90.3 |
| Music streaming | 2 | 8.8 |
| Total | 1,171.6 |
That is about 98% of a 1,200 GB cap, the calculator's default. The 4K stream alone is almost half the total. Spread over the month, 1,171.6 GB works out to an average of about 3.6 Mbps; the TB per month to Mbps converter does that conversion for any amount.
Treat it as an upper bound
The rates are the connection speeds services recommend, which include some margin. Streaming apps adjust quality to the content and your connection, and calls send less when a camera is off, so real use is often lower. If you are close to a cap, your provider's usage meter is the final word.
Game downloads and system updates aren't hourly activities, so add them yourself: one 100 GB install equals about 11 hours of 4K at 9 GB per hour. To estimate how much a connection can move in a set time, use the data transfer calculator.
What uses the most data
| Activity | Up to GB per hour |
|---|---|
| Cloud gaming, 4K (GeForce NOW 45 Mbps) | 20.5 |
| Cloud gaming, 1080p60 (25 Mbps) | 11.5 |
| 4K video (YouTube 20 Mbps) | 9 |
| 1080p video call (Zoom 3.8 + 3.0 Mbps) | 3.1 |
| 1080p video (Netflix 5 Mbps) | 2.25 |
| Online gaming (our estimate, 3 + 1 Mbps) | 1.8 |
| Music, 320 kbps | 0.14 |
Cloud gaming and 4K video are the usual reasons households go over a cap. The per-activity figures and their sources are on internet speed by activity. To size the speed rather than the volume, use the internet speed calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How much data does a family use per month?
It depends almost entirely on video. The worked example on this page (two hours each of 4K and 1080p video a day, three hours of calls, two of gaming, six of browsing and two of music) comes to about 1,170 GB a month as an upper bound.
How much data does 4K streaming use?
At YouTube's recommended 20 Mbps, up to 9 GB per hour. Netflix recommends 15 Mbps for 4K, which is up to 6.75 GB per hour.
Does a faster plan use more data?
Not by itself. Data use depends on what you do, not on the plan speed. A faster plan only lets big downloads finish sooner.
Do uploads count toward my data cap?
Usually yes; most providers count both directions, which is why the calculator adds download and upload together. Check your provider's terms to be sure.