How Much Data Does Youtube Tv Use?

Joe Hindy / Android Dominance

YouTube is the world'south most popular video streaming website. It'due south like shooting fish in a barrel to fall downwards a rabbit hole and sentry several videos back-to-back or even for hours at a time. Some content is good enough to lookout man similar a television show. Thus, it's quite easy to rack up quite the data pecker without a bit of caution. At that place are some correct assumptions you can make immediately. Lower resolution videos obviously don't apply nearly equally much data as college resolution videos. Nevertheless, practice you really know how much data YouTube uses? If not, we programme to tell you.

QUICK ANSWER

YouTube uses betwixt 0.5-1.five MB per minute at 144p and 150-375 per minute MB at 8K.

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Our testing method
How much data does YouTube use
How to reduce information usage on YouTube
Some additional observations
FAQ

Joe Hindy / Android Potency

Our testing method is actually pretty unproblematic. We used a total of 3 data monitoring tools. Android has a native data monitoring tool that we used. Additionally, we measured the data with Google'southward Datally app (Google Play) as well as GlassWire (Google Play). To go our numbers, we measured with all iii apps and averaged the results.

We used this 8k, 60FPS, HDR video tour of Peru because Republic of peru is a beautiful place, and also this video had every available resolution on YouTube at the fastest possible frame rate with HDR. We viewed the video at a locked resolution for three minutes and measured the data. Unfortunately, not all resolutions are ever available on mobile. Thus, for 8k, we used the Windows information monitor along with GlassWire's PC customer and averaged the results.

Nosotros as well ultimately measured all available resolutions on PC considering nosotros could and used Google's Stats for Nerds option by right-clicking the video for the bitrate numbers. We too sourced YouTube's bitrate recommendations since they likely encode videos in those birates anyway.

At that place were some troubles. The PC I used had no problem playing the 8k video. Nevertheless, my monitor doesn't support HDR then I don't believe I saw the maximum possible bitrates for 8k. Until we do further testing, our 8k numbers are estimates.

YouTube data usage, past the numbers

Joe Hindy / Android Dominance

Check the table below for our findings:

Video Quality	Resolution (pixels)	Framrate (FPS)	Bitrate (boilerplate)	Data used per minute	Information used per 60 minutes
Video Quality 144p	Resolution (pixels) 256x144	Framrate (FPS) xxx	Bitrate (average) 80-100 Kbps	Information used per minute 0.5-1.5 MB	Data used per hour 30-90 MB
Video Quality 240p	Resolution (pixels) 426x240	Framrate (FPS) 30	Bitrate (average) 300-700 Kbps	Data used per minute iii-4.5 MB	Data used per hour 180-250 MB
Video Quality 360p	Resolution (pixels) 640x360	Framrate (FPS) 30	Bitrate (average) 400-one,000 Kbps	Data used per infinitesimal 5-seven.five MB	Information used per lx minutes 300-450 MB
Video Quality 480p	Resolution (pixels) 854x480	Framrate (FPS) 30	Bitrate (average) 500-two,000 Kbps	Data used per minute viii-xi MB	Data used per 60 minutes 480-660 MB
Video Quality 720p (HD)	Resolution (pixels) 1280x720	Framrate (FPS) 30-60	Bitrate (average) 1.5-6.0 Mbps	Data used per infinitesimal twenty-45 MB	Data used per 60 minutes i.2-2.7 GB
Video Quality 1080p (FHD)	Resolution (pixels) 1920x1080	Framrate (FPS) xxx-60	Bitrate (boilerplate) 3.0-9.0 Mbps	Data used per minute 50-68 MB	Data used per 60 minutes two.5-4.1 GB
Video Quality 1440p (QHD)	Resolution (pixels) 2560x1440	Framrate (FPS) 30-60	Bitrate (average) six.0-18.0 Mbps	Information used per minute 45-135 MB	Data used per lx minutes 2.7-8.1 GB
Video Quality 2160p (4k) (UHD)	Resolution (pixels) 3840x2160	Framrate (FPS) xxx-60	Bitrate (boilerplate) xiii.0-51.0 Mbps	Data used per minute 95-385 MB	Data used per sixty minutes 5.5-23.0 GB
Video Quality 4320p (8k) (FUHD)	Resolution (pixels) 7680x4320	Framrate (FPS) 30-60	Bitrate (average) xx-fifty Mbps (estimated @30FPS)	Data used per minute 150-375 MB (estimated at 30FPS)	Data used per 60 minutes 9.0-22.5 GB (estimated @30FPS)

Nosotros desire to clarify the data a little bit. YouTube employs a variable bitrate. Thus, the amount of data you'll use should autumn somewhere betwixt the high and low numbers we posted above. We understand that the departure between the low and high can vary significantly at higher resolutions, simply a 4K video uses much less information at a lower bitrate and 30FPS than it will at 60FPS and a higher bitrate. We're adequately confident your overall data employ volition fall within the applicative ranges listed above.

How to reduce data usage on YouTube

Joe Hindy / Android Potency

Information technology'due south fairly easy to salve data on YouTube. For starters, the app and the website both let you lot cull your resolution. You can simply set up it to a manageable resolution. In addition, the YouTube app on mobile has a data saver function that hard locks videos to something like 480p and that looks reasonably skilful on most smartphone screens.

You can access this past opening the YouTube app, clicking your profile picture, and then tapping Settings. From there, tap the Data saving option and plough it on. It will reduce video quality so that you utilize less data.

You tin likewise admission the data saving mode while watching whatsoever YouTube video. Hit the cogwheel button, tap the Quality option, and choose the Information saver option there.

In that location are other ways to do it. Nosotros recommend being on Wi-Fi every bit oftentimes as possible so you don't employ a bunch of mobile data. You used to need a third-party data saver app to restrict usage even more. However, YouTube built a data saving feature right into the app, and so any third-political party app won't be able to do annihilation the main YouTube app tin can.

Some additional observations

Joe Hindy / Android Authority

Our outset fun observation is how YouTube loads videos. It doesn't use a continuous stream. Instead, it loads information in chunks as information technology pre-buffers the video as you lookout man. Information technology does this quite oftentimes. This besides skews the numbers a bit. Let's say, for case, that you only sentinel one minute of a four-minute video. YouTube likely loaded an extra 30-45 seconds in advance.

That means you loaded virtually one infinitesimal and 45 seconds of video fifty-fifty if you just watched 1 infinitesimal of it. We did not correct our information for this beliefs because information technology is outside of our control. That is only how YouTube uses information. We zoomed in on a section of GlassWire's graph while measuring the 4K video stream and you can clearly encounter the big load at the beginning and the chunk loading happening later on.

Joe Hindy / Android Authorization

144p vs 4K test. The 144p exam is the small bumps on the left while the 4K test is the massive bumps on the right.

Secondly, the difference between a 4K video and a 144p video actually is massive. We've included the screenshot above then yous can run into information technology for yourself. The 144p examination is the pocket-size bumps on the left and 4K exam is the massive amount of usage on the right. Because the data is squished together to show ii split tests, you can't really see the chunk loading. Nevertheless, what you can see is the massive departure in information usage and how much more than intense information technology is on your data connectedness.

FAQ

How much data does live streaming use?

In our testing, live-streamed data uses about the same near of data to a comparably long YouTube video at the same resolution and frame rate.

How do I bank check my own YouTube information usage?

Open the YouTube app, hit your profile picture, and then tap the Time watched pick. This shows y'all how much YouTube you've watched in the last week. The option beneath that, Your information in YouTube will show you your watch history, comment history, playlist history, etc. Additionally, every tool we used to measure YouTube data is available to you for free. Scroll up to the department about our testing methods for download links.

Why is my YouTube data usage so high?

At that place are ii likely causes for this. The offset is your YouTube app settings have every video playing at its maximum resolution and bitrate. Secondly, you simply might be watching a ton of YouTube videos. It adds up faster than you might think. Endeavour adjusting your app settings to YouTube's data saver

Read more: YouTube Music vs YouTube Premium: What'southward the difference?

Have you always tried to mensurate your YouTube data speeds? If so, tell u.s.a. your results in the comments.