Travel data calculator
How much mobile data do I need?
Pick a preset or set how you use your phone on a normal travel day. The calculator adds it up for your whole trip, adds a 15% margin and tells you what size of plan to look for.
The calculator needs JavaScript switched on. The typical trips and the table below show what each kind of use needs.
Start from a preset
Then adjust anything below. The presets keep your trip length.
Each day, about how long do you spend on:
3.8 GB · 5 GB plan
See resultTypical trips
What the three presets come to, with the 15% margin, and the plan size to look for.
| Use | A day | A week | Two weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light Maps, messages, a little browsing | 177 MB |
1.2 GB 2 GB plan |
2.4 GB 3 GB plan |
| Typical Social media, music, a short call | 557 MB |
3.8 GB 5 GB plan |
7.6 GB 10 GB plan |
| Heavy HD video, lots of uploads, a hotspot | 5.0 GB |
35 GB 50 GB plan |
70 GB 100 GB plan |
How the estimate works
Each activity is charged at a typical rate, taken from the middle of the ranges that phone makers, networks and app publishers give for their own services. The figures are deliberately round: real use varies with the app, the network, the settings and how much runs in the background, so treat the answer as a guide rather than a promise.
Video quality matters more than anything else. One hour of HD video uses more data than a full week of maps, messages and browsing, so if you plan to stream, the quality setting decides the plan size.
| Activity | Estimate | What it assumes |
|---|---|---|
| Maps and navigation | 10 MB per hour | Navigating with an online map. Downloading offline maps before you go brings this close to zero. |
| Social media scrolling | 300 MB per hour | Scrolling a feed of photos and short videos that play on their own. |
| Web browsing | 60 MB per hour | Reading pages, searching, booking sites and email. |
| Chat messages | 0.01 MB per message | A text message is tiny: 100 of them come to about 1 MB. |
| Photos in chats | 0.2 MB per photo | Chat apps shrink photos before sending them. |
| Video calls | 500 MB per hour | A one-to-one video call. Voice-only calls use about a tenth of this. |
| Music streaming | 70 MB per hour | Streaming at normal quality. High quality roughly doubles it. |
| Video streaming, SD | 1 GB per hour | Standard definition, which is plenty on a phone screen. |
| Video streaming, HD | 3 GB per hour | High definition. The biggest single use of data on most trips. |
| Photo uploads and backups | 3 MB per photo | A full-size phone photo uploaded or backed up. |
| Laptop on your hotspot | 400 MB per hour | A laptop browsing, emailing and syncing files. Video on the laptop comes on top. |
| Background app use | 50 MB per day | App refreshes, notifications and sync the phone does on its own. |
The total is the daily amount times the days of your trip. Then 15% is added and the result rounded up to a common plan size: 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50 or 100 GB. Above 100 GB the calculator suggests an unlimited plan. Here 1 GB is 1,024 MB, the same as on the plan list.
Not sure what some of the terms mean? The eSIM glossary explains them. What is an eSIM?
Mobile data questions
- How much data do I need for a week abroad?
- By these estimates, a week of maps, messaging, some browsing and an hour or so of social media a day comes to about 2 to 4 GB. Streaming video or using your phone as a hotspot for a laptop can push it past 20 GB. Use the calculator for your own mix.
- Is 1 GB a day enough?
- For most travellers, yes. Maps, messaging, browsing and an hour of social media come to well under 1 GB a day by these estimates. An hour of video in standard definition uses about 1 GB on its own, and HD about three times that.
- What uses the most data when travelling?
- Video, by a wide margin: streaming films and series, then video calls and video-heavy social feeds. Sharing your connection with a laptop also adds up quickly, because laptops sync and update in the background.
- How can I use less mobile data abroad?
- Download offline maps, playlists and shows on Wi-Fi before you go, set streaming apps to standard quality, turn off automatic photo backup and app updates over mobile data, and use Wi-Fi where you trust it.
- What if I run out of data?
- Many plans can be topped up on the same eSIM, with nothing new to install. Each plan on Live Test 1113 says whether it can, so check before you buy if you are unsure how much you will use.
- Why add a safety margin?
- Real use varies with the apps, the video quality and how much runs in the background, so an estimate can fall short. Adding 15% leaves room for that without paying for far more data than you need.