Most people buy more data than they use. Here are figures based on what people actually do, not on what sounds safe.
What each thing costs you
- Maps and directions: 10–15 MB a day. Lighter than almost everyone assumes.
- Messaging (text, no photos): under 5 MB a day.
- Social media, scrolling: 100–300 MB an hour.
- Photos uploaded to cloud: 3–5 MB per photo, and this is where plans quietly disappear.
- Video calls: about 300 MB per 30 minutes.
- Streaming video: 150 MB per 10 minutes at medium quality, far more at high.
- Music streaming: about 70 MB an hour.
Real figures for a week
An ordinary traveller, seven days, using the phone normally:
- Light (maps, messaging, occasional browsing): 500 MB–1 GB per day
- Normal (the above plus social media and photos): 1–2 GB per day
- Heavy (video calls home every evening, lots of video): 3–5 GB per day
So for most people, 2 GB per day is comfortable and 3 GB is generous.
Why not to overbuy
Data you do not use is not refunded and does not carry over. Buying 10 GB a day for a trip where you use 1.5 GB is simply paying several times over for nothing.
The one case where buying more makes sense: you are working remotely, or you will share the connection with a laptop or other people.
Total allowance or daily
A daily plan never leaves you with no connection — running out only slows you until the next day. A total-allowance plan can leave you with nothing in the middle of a trip.
If you are unsure how much you use, a moderate daily plan is the safer choice.
How to know your own number
This takes two minutes and beats any estimate:
- iPhone: Settings → Cellular → scroll down to see data used in the current period. Reset the statistics, use your phone normally for two days, then look again.
- Android: Settings → Network & internet → Data usage.
Double your ordinary daily figure for travel — you use maps far more and wifi far less than at home.
One saving most people miss
Turn off automatic photo and video backup to the cloud while travelling, and turn it back on when you reach wifi. Holiday photos are the single biggest unplanned data cost, and nothing is lost by uploading them at the hotel in the evening.