# What's eating your phone's data?

> Video streaming, social media and video calls are the biggest data hogs on smartphones, but you can control most of them.
- Title: What's eating your phone's data? · Engadget | Shortify
- Summary: Video streaming, social media and video calls are the biggest data hogs on smartphones, but you can control most of them. Video streaming at high resolution…
- Keywords: smartphone data usage, video streaming, social media, video calls, data consumption, netflix, youtube, tiktok, zoom, instagram, mobile networks, data plans
- Source: Engadget — https://engadget.com/2260677/what-uses-most-data-smartphone
- Author: Isaac Egbon
- Published: 2026-09-21T14:00:00+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: smartphone data usage, video streaming, social media, video calls, data consumption, netflix, youtube, tiktok, zoom, instagram, mobile networks, data plans
## Mobile data is exploding
The world uses 150 to 200 exabytes of mobile data monthly, and that's forecast to more than double to 328 exabytes by 2031. The average smartphone now consumes over 20GB monthly, up from 4.9GB just a few years ago.
## Video streaming dominates
YouTube at 4K uses over 15GB per hour, Netflix Ultra HD uses up to 7GB per hour, and Prime Video Best quality uses 6.8GB per hour. These are by far the biggest data consumers on any phone.

> On 4K UHD, an hour on YouTube can consume over 15GB of data.
## Video calls add up fast
One-on-one video calls use around 500MB per hour, but Zoom group calls at 1080p consume 2.48GB per hour because the app downloads a separate stream for each participant.

> A one-on-one Zoom call will consume about 540MB per hour at 480p, 1.08GB per hour at 720p and over 1.62GB per hour at 1080p.
## Social media varies widely
TikTok uses 750MB to 1GB per hour, Instagram uses up to 1.5GB per hour, while text-focused platforms like X use as little as 50MB to 1GB per hour depending on video consumption.
## Updates and backups drain quietly
A single iOS update can range from a few hundred megabytes to over 12GB for major releases. Android updates vary by device. Cloud backups add to the total depending on what's being backed up.

> A single iOS update can run anywhere from a few hundred megabytes to more than 12GB if it's a major release.
## Music streaming is modest
Spotify at default quality uses 43MB per hour, but Apple Music's lossless audio uses 720MB per hour and Hi-Res Lossless uses up to 2.9GB per hour.
## Download over Wi-Fi to save
Downloading content over Wi-Fi for offline playback is the easiest way to cut data usage across nearly every app and service.

> Once something is downloaded, it won't use your data plan again.
## Key takeaway

Video streaming at high resolution uses the most data by far, but adjusting quality settings on nearly every app can cut consumption dramatically.