It’s no secret how much we love our phones, and the reason we do is because the apps on them. They offer us everything from social connections and entertainment to productivity tools and navigation or guides. However, while they bring convenience and efficiency to our lives, they also consume a significant amount of data. Understanding the data consumption on some of your favourite apps can help you manage your data usage better. Today, we explore the average data consumption per minute on popular apps.

WhatsApp

Activity	Data Usage
Text Messaging	Minimal data usage, around 1 KB per message.
Voice Calls	Approximately 300 KB to 700 KB per minute.
Video Calls	Higher consumption, around 3 MB to 5 MB per minute.
Media Sharing	Data usage depends on file size: photos average 300 KB, videos are significantly higher.

Instagram

Activity	Data Usage
Text Messaging	Minimal data usage, around 1 KB per message.
Voice Calls	Approximately 300 KB to 700 KB per minute.
Video Calls	Higher consumption, around 3 MB to 5 MB per minute.
Media Sharing	Data usage depends on file size: photos average 300 KB, videos significantly higher.
Browsing Feed	Approximately 1.5 MB per minute.
Viewing Stories	Around 2.5 MB per minute.
Watching Videos	Between 4 MB to 7 MB per minute, depending on video quality.
Uploading Photos	Approximately 2 MB per photo.
Uploading Videos	Around 8 MB to 10 MB per minute of video.

Facebook

Activity	Data Usage
Text Messaging	Minimal data usage, around 1 KB per message.
Voice Calls	Approximately 300 KB to 700 KB per minute.
Video Calls	Higher consumption, around 3 MB to 5 MB per minute.
Media Sharing	Data usage depends on file size: photos average 300 KB, videos significantly higher.
Browsing Feed	Approximately 1 MB to 2 MB per minute.
Viewing Photos	Around 2 MB per minute.
Watching Videos	Between 2.6 MB to 7.7 MB per minute (SD to HD quality).
Uploading Photos	Approximately 1 MB to 2 MB per photo.
Uploading Videos	Around 4 MB to 10 MB per minute of video.

TikTok

Video Quality	Data Usage
Standard Quality	Approximately 8 MB to 20 MB per minute.
High Quality	Around 30 MB to 50 MB per minute.

X formerly known as Twitter

Activity	Data Usage
Browsing Feed	Approximately 0.6 MB to 1.5 MB per minute.
Viewing Photos	Around 1 MB per minute.
Watching Videos	Between 3 MB to 7 MB per minute, depending on video quality.
Uploading Photos	Approximately 1 MB to 2 MB per photo.
Uploading Videos	Around 4 MB to 10 MB per minute of video.

YouTube

Video Resolution	Data Usage
144p	Approximately 1.90 MB per minute.
240p	Approximately 2.70 MB per minute.
360p	Approximately 4.40 MB per minute.
480p (SD)	Approximately 7.70 MB per minute.
720p (HD)	Approximately 14.50 MB per minute.
1080p (Full HD)	Approximately 27.60 MB per minute.
1440p (2K)	Approximately 45.00 MB per minute.
2160p (4K)	Approximately 82.50 MB per minute.

Spotify

Audio Quality	Data Usage
Low Quality (24 kbps)	Approximately 0.18 MB per minute.
Normal Quality (96 kbps)	Approximately 0.72 MB per minute.
High Quality (160 kbps)	Approximately 1.2 MB per minute.
Very High Quality (320 kbps)	Approximately 2.4 MB per minute.

SHEIN / Temu

E-commerce Activity	Data Usage

Browsing the App/Website

Approximately 1 MB to 2 MB per minute.

Viewing Product Images

Around 2 MB per minute.

Watching Product Videos

Between 3 MB to 5 MB per minute, depending on video quality.

Google

Search Type	Data Usage

Basic Text Search

Approximately 0.2 MB to 0.5 MB per search.

Image-Heavy Search

Around 0.5 MB to 1 MB per search.

Loading a Web Page

Approximately 0.5 MB to 3 MB, depending on content.

We hope this information helps you think of your data consumption in a more efficient manner. We know that sending a voice note is more convenient than typing, but is it worth the extra data usage? These are the kind of informed decisions you can make going forward. If you have more to add to this topic, please comment below or on our social media pages.