Understanding What Uses Data
The first step to keeping your data usage in check is to understand what is using a lot of data and what isn’t. For example, checking your email—if even if you check it four hundred times a day—isn’t going to make a dent in a 500GB data package. But streaming videos over YouTube all day will, of course.
It’s the gray area here that confuses most people: Facebook, Instagram, and the like. And the issue here is that there isn’t really a clear answer on what’s “safe” and what isn’t, because it’s all defined by how you actually use these types of networks. For example, if you scroll through Facebook or Instagram and watch every video that auto-plays in your feed, guess what? You’re likely going to chew through a reasonable amount of data doing so.
So, the loose rule here on what uses the most data down to the least when it comes to common social networks: video uses the most, by far. Music falls in the middle, and photos are going to be the smallest. Regular web browsing (text-only pages that don't involve video or heavy photo viewing), of course, are hardly even worth mentioning.
Streaming Video: Limit Your Resolution and Bandwidth
If you stream a lot of video—be that Netflix, YouTube, or any other streaming service—that’s most likely going to be your biggest data hog. The good news is that you can do a few things to help reduce the amount of data you’re pulling down by watching videos. For reference, however, let’s take a quick look at Netflix data use:
• For SD (standard definition) video, Netflix uses around 0.7 GB an hour
• For HD (High Definition 1080p) video, Netflix uses around 3 GB an hour
• For UHD (Ultra High Definition 4K), Netflix uses around 7 GB an hour
You can see how that could make a dent in your data package pretty quickly. To adjust these settings on Netflix, for reference, this setting is handled on a per-profile basis. So to change it, you’ll log-in to your profile and use the drop down menu on the top right hand corner to access Account (or settings) > My Profile > Playback Settings. From there, pick your preferred data usage setting. If you use other streaming services you will have to search out their specific methods to reduce data usage online.
Watch for Uploads, Backups, and Security Cameras
Remember, uploads count against your data cap too. If you upload videos of your kids for family to see, have scheduled backups to the cloud, or use internet-connected security cameras in your house, you’ll need to keep a close eye on all of those.
If you have a Nest Cam or Arlo Cameras and subscribe to the associated cloud recording service, this could use up your data package just on uploads alone. For example one user recorded his three Nest Cams use in a 30 day period, and saw upload totals of 1,302 GB as well as 54 GB of downloads. The best solution here is to keep your monitoring to an absolute minimum—set your cams to only record when you’re not at home, set it to record only when it detects motion (and not sound), and limit your camera’s quality/bandwidth settings.
