this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
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I rarely use over 2GB of data per month. Usually most of my data traffic happens over wifi. Curious.

If you want to know why I'm asking:

My phone provider just decided to upgrade my subscription plan some ridiculous amount. I was on a cheap prepaid 18GB every 28 days plan, with data rollover. (I got nearly 900 GB of rollover data just sitting there, accumulated over the years).

Now they increased both their price and data cap about +60%. For me this is absolutely unnecessary. I was already paying for more than what I used.

Then I tried to switch providers, and realized this is the new baseline in the country, at least for monthly prepaid. Eventually I found a few providers that offer something more affordable, but it's only long expiry plans with a lot less data. Works for me though, not complaining.

I'm just surprised with the sheer amounts in most monthly plans, am I some kind of low usage freak?

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[–] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

20 euro, unlimited calls and data. Though i dont buy it every month only when I'll need it.

[–] Libb@piefed.social 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

More or less 0. Just like I don't use my phone much, I seldom use any data. I don't watch/listen to content on my phone, I don't take much photos. I don't even check my emails.

I just checked on their website, for January I'm sitting at an impressive 360 megs (130 giga available monthly) but this month is a massive increase in my usual data consumption as I've taken a lot more pictures than I use to (we're visiting new apartments).

I pay 12€/m each for both my spouse and mine (each with a 130g plan that we never use, it's the smallest plan we could get), plus 2€/m for a third line that has no data plan at all (that we use as a 'trash/publicly shared number' we almost never answer). This cheap plan could suit us if it wasn't that limited when moving abroad (the reason why I pay for those 130g plans we don't use is they don't have those limits) and if it had some data associated to it for those rare times when we need it, like it just happened this month. Those plans are all without engagement (and we provide our own phones)

Here in France, customers need to regularly check their invoice to make sure the operator has not silently activated a new 'feature' free 'for the first month' that automatically switch to the paid tier the following month. Without the customer asking anything. It happens very often. And it can quickly ad up.

[–] sarmale@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Romania, currently paying 2€ / month for 75GB, never had to worry, didn't even knew the cap until now - I thought it was unlimited. At most I used 20GB / month which to be honest surprised me a bit.

Pretty happy with Digi

[–] beegnyoshi@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

About Digi, here in Portugal it's a bit iffy. Sometimes calls don't arrive, mobile data doesn't work in the subway, along with some other nitpicks, but it's definitely gotten better since I started using it. I get unlimited data for fairly cheap which is cool.

It's not like I need to be connected to the internet at all times, so my biggest peeve is definitely the fact that for some ungodly reason whenever I stop getting mobile data I need to fully reboot my phone to get it back again. Turning mobile data on and off, or setting airplane mode on and off doesn't work for some reason.

But something to take into account is that (and this is purely anecdotal) coincidentally the moment I started using digi, I started getting spam calls en masse, specifically from Iberdrola. Most of the time once a day, but at some point it reached multiple times a day. I never answered, but would search the number online and see that it was spam. Though it could very much have been a coincidence, it still makes digi feel a bit sus to me. Rarely do I ever use it without a vpn.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 8 points 1 week ago

My career is a lot of sitting around idle time babysitting machines so I do actually use my mobile data. Usually 20-30GB usage unless I feel like binging a show. 80GB cap. So, if I do that it's 480p rips on Stremio.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 week ago

My actual phone doesn't have data, my home internet uses mobile data though as I have a 4G router. That is averaging about 4TB/year, or 333GB/month, I pay £24/month for unlimited data on that.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I suspect that it wildly varies based on user.

If you use video streaming from, say, YouTube and TikTok heavily, and you do so outside of WiFi networks, I bet that you can burn through a lot of data pretty quickly.

Another user could be sitting on Lemmy or whatever all day every day and just not use much data.

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[–] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

My operator gives me 150gb for 7.99€. It actually started with 30gb for the same price but they've been upgrading my gb almost yearly without price increase.

As I stream music from my jellyfin server for around 6-8 hours a day (most of my office time) and watch some shows on my lunch time, my monthly consumption is around 60-70gb a month.

But simply because I know I have more than enough to not worry about the streaming quality of my files, otherwise I'd be at maybe 10 or so.

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[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 week ago

At home I use my home internet so I don't use the phone's data there and I don't track it at all.

Outside my house. I noticed that I doubled my data usage since joining Lemmy, from 3-4GB per month to 6-7GB. I suspect that this is mosly because the app I'm using doesn't seem to hold much on cache, every time I'm scrolling back up it's all loading icons.

[–] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

About 120 GB a month. Luckily, data is unlimited.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 4 points 1 week ago

I love how you get a warning at 2GB

[–] klymilark@herbicide.fallcounty.omg.lol 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

According to my device:

  • September: 30mb
  • October: 153mb
  • November: 652mb
  • December: 889mb

Not sure why September was so low, but I'm not surprised it's <1gb/mo. I didn't really have unlimited data until a couple of years ago, and I don't really sit around watching videos out of the house. It's mostly music, which my music is all downloaded on my phone anyway.

The spike in November is because I moved. I started walking to the store, and the internet here is less consistent, so I'm using my data more.

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[–] popekingjoe@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

According to my carrier, I use an average of 17GB. Work WiFi isn't always reliable so sometimes I just let loose. I pay $25 monthly for unlimited, so it's not like I have to worry about it.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

2-3GB. a day.

But I have a gradfathered unlimited data plan from like 18 years ago and I pay basically nothing, so I don't have any reason to limit it.

[–] oysterenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Just curious – what do you need that much data for?

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[–] imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

I got 25gb monthly plan. I utilize around 7-10gb monthly.

50GB for £7.95 a month. I probably use between 10-20GB, depending on what I've got going on in my life.

Two plans, both unlimited calls and data. One is 30€, the other 15€ (the more expensive one has significantly higher speeds), on two different networks.

Depending on the moth, I tend to use 50-100 GB/month.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

543MiB last month. I mostly use the cell data for maps and messaging

My phone plan is $5 a month, for 100gib, after I hit the cap the speed gets limited to 384kbps... I'm no where near hitting my monthly cap.

[–] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

I snatched a no-monthly-payment plan sometime around 2010, and am holding to it for dear life — even though it hasn't been offered to new clients for a long time. Thankfully, where I am, the provider can't change the defining conditions of my plan.

I rarely call anyone, and don't use the internet on the phone outside of WiFi networks (I listen to downloaded podcasts and read downloaded articles instead, and use OsmAnd for maps). Which means that the fifteen bucks that I paid over three years ago still haven't been used.

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[–] Kittredge@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I'm reliably 7-8GB. It's kind of impressive, honestly, since I don't think I'm too consistent day to day

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yea, us low data users are the exception, so they don't market to us.

In the US, USMobile has about the best rates for low data plans. I think I'm paying $20/mo for 2 lines at 4GB (shared), and adding more data in a month is cheap. So cheap I've set it to automatically add more if I go over.

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

You just might be. I use about 10GB per month but mostly when I commute. At home and other places there is usually wifi to use.

[–] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago

It's hard to burn through half a terrabyte in a month 

[–] UnfairUtan@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I have a 100GB/month for about 13€/month.

I use between 10 and 30

[–] frittoBee@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I use about 1 - 2GB per month of my 40GB so I have way more mobile data available than I need.

I think it's interesting that they increased the price for your plan. I live in Germany and I think the only thing that's constantly getting cheaper are these mobile data plans. They always upgrade the data but the price stays the same.

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[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nearly zero since I almost never use the internet outside of home. If I know I'll be traveling, I have a separate wi-fi hotspot I pay for (a bit under 100k JPY yearly). My phone bill yearly is less than 35k JPY (usually closer to 33k but leaving a buffer in case I make a lot of outgoing calls)

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[–] AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Usually I get a text message a few days before the monthly data reset saying how I've used 50GB but at least I still get unlimited.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

500 GB carrier data?

Edit: sorry I must cut down on the alcohol, I'm seeing double digits. You said 50 not 500...

[–] ViperActual@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

620MB of data from last months usage. Generally all my data is via Wi-Fi as well.

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[–] LiveLM@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Just looked through the carrier app, I seem to hover around 3gb monthly.
I could comfortably lower this down to 1gb tbh, but like you I have a plan with rollover and a toooon of data built up so lately I don't even bother trying to save. Most places I just stay on Data even if I could log into their WiFi.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 3 points 1 week ago

I'm the same, in the sense of not bothering to save... I'm just surprised the current market is forcing us to pay so much extra for something a lot of people don't need.

[–] krdo@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago

I use around 15 GB a month out of 150. Data is cheap where I live.

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

According to my phone I use around 4/6GB per month (I have an unlimited plan). But I'm guessing you're in the US or Canada, I'm always boggled when I remember that data is expensive to you guys.

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[–] PhoenixDog@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Roughly 15-20gbs per month. I drive a truck and part of my day job is literally sitting around at farms and waiting. So I do a lot of scrolling to kill time.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I’m not seeing that itemized in my bill or providers portal. However I do pay for unlimited data so maybe they think it doesn’t matter

I looked at the year in review and I am the lowest data usage in my family with 48G last year. However I have poor cell reception at home so am usually on WiFi

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[–] Griffus@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have a 20GB subscription for just under €30, but I normally use just over 10, so I have around 30GB at the start of every month.

Even if ran by many of the same companies, prices have always been higher in Norway than in most of the rest of the continent, both because of the more complicated infrastructure, but also because we sadly are willing to pay more. Cheaper brands appear all the time by renting the bigger companies infrastructure, but they never last long, so I've opted for a little more expensive to not have to switch out operator once a year. So yeah, I'm part of the problem.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 4 points 1 week ago

Yes that's a similar situation to Australia. But here I've seen some of these cheaper brands succeed, in fact my current (soon to be previous) carrier started this way a few years ago. And just like you, I could have saved some buck had I moved to a different plan earlier, but I didn't mind the old price so I didn't bother searching.

[–] The_v@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I have a 15GB plan shared among 5 phones for 4 people. We usually use around 8-10GB. It brings my total bill for all 5 phones to $150/month.

I pay $80/month for high speed cable Internet for the house and I regularly update the wifi router. At work/school the wife and kids have wifi.

I even pay $225 per year for unlimited Wi-Fi in my work truck.

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Over all of my SIMs combined, around 20Gigs. This means my phone, my car, my work laptop, and this one hobby project that involves an LTE modem.

[–] seathru@quokk.au 3 points 1 week ago

I use very little, so I picked a plan with a pay-as-you-use data. It's expensive for the amount you get ($10/Gb), but since I seldom use more than 1gb, it ends up cheaper overall.

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

So apparently I'm averaging about 6GB on mobile data going by the past 3 months, and according to my router, 90GB the past 30 days on my phone via WiFi, though I imagine some of that is probably LAN traffic.

Gotta say the on WiFi number surprised me

I have unlimited data, so I don't usually look at this stuff haha

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[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It varies, but so far this month (day 11) I'm at 80GB and 300GB a month isn't unusual. At home and work I typically get 500+ Mbps download so I don't tend to bother with WiFi. I'm currently paying £12/mo for a SIM-only service.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 3 points 1 week ago

You don't use WiFi at all and all traffic is by phone? Wow that sounds intense

[–] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Usually between 1 and 2 GB/month, up to 10 in months where I travel, which happens about two or three times a year.

I have a plan which increases my data cap each year, giving me 30 GB currently. It's 20 €/month, which is about average for a 5G plan of that size. I like not having to worry about my data usage.

[–] ozymandias117@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Looks like 47 GiB across two lines last month.

We only use WiFi at home, not when out

[–] RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I bought 1gb data-only esim several months ago. I think I have 500mb left. Mostly, I use wifi when at home and out. The phone is degoogled (so it uses very little data) and I have data saver on all the time. Most of my data usage is during a power outage.

[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Less than 2GB for me. I only get 2GB cuz prepaid. I don't have anybody to text or videochat and I can't stand browsing the web on small screens. My phone is low end and even then, I don't like spending my time using it for gaming. I personally don't like putting important stuff on it since somebody can steal it from me. I basically just use it for calling.

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