How Much Data Does Spotify Free Use Per Hour

How much data do music streaming services use? No Aussie telcos currently offer data-free streaming through YouTube Music. For approximately 2.8MB of data. Streaming for an hour a day will.

  • Data used from Spotify depends on the quality you are streaming from. Below is a general breakdown of how much data you’re using: Normal quality- 96 kilobits, which lets you stream 40 megabytes per.
  • Spotify needs a WiFi or mobile data connection to work. It’s best to use WiFi instead of mobile data. If you can’t use WiFi but want to keep mobile data usage low, use Data Saver. Data Saver reduces the app’s data usage by showing fewer images and reducing audio quality. Switch Data Saver on.
  • On their lowest quality settings, one hour of Spotify streaming will use 40 MB of data, whereas one hour of YouTube streaming will use 100 MB of data. On their medium quality settings, Spotify uses 70 MB and YouTube uses 250 MB.

How much data does Spotify use? It depends on the sound quality you choose. The higher it is, the more data the streaming service will burn through. In any case, Spotify uses way less data than video streaming services (more on this later) and probably less than most people think.

The Spotify Android app lets you choose between five sound quality settings: Low (24kbps), Normal (96kbps), High (160kbps), Very high (320kbps), and Automatic (dependent on your network connection). You can access these options by heading to Settings > Music Quality on your Android phone.

Don’t miss: After a week with YouTube Music, my heart is still with Spotify

To simplify things as much as possible, I’ve prepared an overview of how much data each setting uses per minute and hour as well as how long you’d have to stream music for to burn through 1GB of data. Keep in mind these numbers are approximate. Spotify can cache songs you’ve previously listened to, meaning they may not eat up the same amount of data the second time you play them.

Low (24kbps):

  • Per minute: 0.18MB
  • Per hour: 10.8MB
  • How long until you reach 1GB: 92.5 hours

How Much Data Does Spotify Free Use Per Hour Work

Normal (96kbps):

  • Per minute: 0.72MB
  • Per hour: 43.2MB
  • How long until you reach 1GB: 23.1 hours

High (160kbps):

  • Per minute: 1.2MB
  • Per hour: 72MB
  • How long until you reach 1GB: 13.8 hours

Very high (320kbps):

  • Per minute: 2.4MB
  • Per hour: 144MB
  • How long until you reach 1GB: 6.9 hours
How Much Data Does Spotify Free Use Per Hour

Now that you know how much data Spotify uses, let’s see how the numbers compare to video streaming. Watching HD content on Netflix uses up to 3GB of data per hour or as much as 7GB when the resolution gets bumped up to Ultra HD. Medium quality (SD) is a lot less data hungry, burning through 0.7GB per hour. Still, that’s almost five times as much as streaming music with the best sound quality available (320kbps).

Apple Music vs Spotify vs Google Play Music

For well over a decade, the music industry has been trying to figure out the Internet and they have failed more often than they have succeeded. Declining music sales and the rise of free sources …

What about Spotify’s competitors? Google Play Music and Deezer both offer a maximum audio bitrate of 320kbps, which uses approximately 144MB of data per hour. So does Tidal, although it also has a Hi-Fi plan with a bitrate of 1.411kbps for improved sound quality. It’s a lot more data hungry, using around 635MB per hour. Apple Music, on the other hand, has a maximum bitrate of 256kbps, which translates to around 115MB of data per hour.

An important thing to keep in mind is that Spotify — as well as other streaming services mentioned in this post — lets you download songs to your phone, which means you don’t have to use any data at all when listening to music.

How many hours per week do you listen to music on Spotify or other streaming services? Let us know in the comments!

Internet Data Usage Guide: What uses the most data?

What uses the most data on your mobile device?

Streaming HD video content is by far the biggest perpetrator when it comes to draining your monthly mobile data allowance, however it's the combination of everything you do your mobile device which adds up to your overall data threshold.

When we first sign up to a mobile phone plan, it’s hard to understand how much data we’ll realistically use. A lot of us underestimate our average mobile data usage per month, which can be a big problem and lead to either wastage or excess data charges.

A recent study from Deloitte showed 43% of Aussies don’t know how much data they use each month

It’s time for more Australians to understand how this whole data usage thing works and figure out which applications are chewing through the most data. Keep reading to find out how much mobile data different online activities use.

How to check your data usage

The methods on how to check your data usage on both Apple and Android are very similar.With this said, the easiest way to check how much data you’ve used and how much you have left is by checking with your telco.

The amaysim app, for instance, breaks it down day-by-day usage so you can see where your data usage soared and where it might have lowered. With amaysim mobile and data only plans providing customers with heaps data, it will be tough to ever go over, but its better to be safe than sorry.

For Apple
  • To see how much mobile data you've used, go to Settings > Cellular or Settings > Mobile Data. If you're using an iPad, you might see Settings > Cellular Data instead.
For Android

If you're using an Android smartphone, you'll find your data usage tools by following these steps:

  • Open the Settings app
  • Scroll or tap on Wireless & Networks
  • Tap Data Usage

There may be some slight variation in these steps and menu option names depending on what version of Android and the type of phone you're using.

What’s draining my mobile data?

When looking through your data usage, you'll find it isn't one app that’s draining all your data, it’ll be a combination of apps. The apps where you spend the most time will be at the top of this list, generally, these will be video-heavy apps such as YouTube, Netflix, Instagram, and Facebook where rich content is being consumed.

How much data does internet browsing use?

General web browing such as reading the news or online shopping only uses around 60MB/hour.

Depending on the types of websites you visit, the amount of data you use up will vary as some sites include lots more rich content (images and videos). Generally speaking, expect to use around 60MB/hour when browsing the web. Shopaholics rejoice!

How much data does spotify free use per hour work

How much data does YouTube streaming use?

Youtube steaming users around 360MB/hour (SD video quality)

Mobile data usage on YouTube can vary significantly depending on which streaming quality option you select. If you stream using the standard video quality option (480p) it should only use around 6MB/minute or 360MB/hour.

Streaming high-quality YouTube content in 1080p will use around 150MB/minute or 900MB for a full hour of usage. If you’re looking to stay in control of your usage, we recommend optimising your YouTube streaming to ensure you stream in SD (480p).

How much data does Netfix Streaming use?

Netflix streaming uses appoxiamtely 250MB-1GB/hour depending on which quality setting you use

Streaming using the lowest quality setting on Netflix will use around 5MB/minute or 300MB/hour, the medium quality will chew through 9MB/minute or 450MB/hour, while the high-quality setting will churn through 17MB/minute which equates to a full GB for each hour of Netflix you consume.
With most programmes running for an hour, that’s anywhere from 250MB - 1GB of data gone every time you watch an episode of Ozark or Stranger Things.
There are obviously a lot of great shows coming to Netflix each month, so be smart and pre-download them using WiFi so you aren’t left dataless at the end of your billing cycle.

How much data does social media use?

Scrolling on Facebook uses approximately 120MB/hour, or 160MB/hour for video content

Just scrolling through social media will use around 2MB/minute, which is one of the lowest offenders. If you enjoy watching videos though, this number will increase for each minute you spend enjoying cat videos on Facebook.
Facebook has settings that allow you to limit your Facebook data usage and manage your monthly data spend better.

How much data does music streaming use?

Music streaming uses around 150MB/hour

Data usage will depend on the streaming service you use, but on average you’ll be looking at 2.5MB for each minute you stream which equates to around 150MB/hour, one of the lowest data users on our list!
But remember, we often stream music for hours on end each day, which can sometimes add up.

How much data does gaming use?

This can vary a lot depending on the actual game you're playing and can range anywhere between 3MB/hour to a full GB.

Ideally, you should check the data usage section on your phone and see which of your games are burning through the most data. It also pays to be careful of game updates, as these can be large files that you should download while connected to Wi-Fi.

How much data does FaceTime use?

How Much Data Does Spotify Free Use Per Hour Cost

FaceTime uses approximately 90MB per hour

A FaceTime video call uses around 3MB/minute, so about 180MB for that hour-long chat with grandma. As video conferencing becomes a more popular way to stay connected with friends and family, the need to monitor your average data usage per month increases.

How Much Data Does Spotify Free Use Per Hour Per

How to best manage your data usage

One of the best ways to minimise data usage is to prepare ahead of time! Look into mobile games that don’t require online play so you can stay entertained without using data.
Download music or podcasts while connected to Wi-Fi so you don’t spend all your mobile data streaming the same album again and again. Stream Netflix, Stan, and YouTube in lower qualities to save on data (or download ahead of time on those apps as well).
Review what’s using up most of your data and check when you’re using data the most through the amaysim app. Try to change your habits accordingly and never run out of data again!

How Much Data Does Spotify Free Use Per Hour Charge

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