How Much Data Does YouTube Use? And How To Track It?

Do you love spending time watching videos on YouTube? But do you often wonder where do all your data go at the end of the day? What do you think, will you blame YouTube alone for this? I guess it won’t be fair to blame YouTube alone. Do you know How Much Data Does YouTube Use? And How To Track It?

When you open YouTube for once and you will get to see interesting videos one after the other. How do you skip those interesting videos? Even if you think that there is nothing interesting, YouTube will still keep you glued to it this platform.

You get to see your favorite shows on this platform that is absolutely free of cost. Maybe you want to start your own channel on this platform, and you may want to know how to keep track of the data that is used by this platform. So, we have come up with a post on How Much Data Does YouTube Use? And How To Track It?

After reading this post you will get to know how much data this platform uses and how can you track it. So, without wasting any more time let’s quickly get started.

Why Does YouTube Use So Much Data?

In comparison to other streaming audio or watching a webpage, when you watch the YouTube videos will surely use a lot of data. But why so? Well, the answer to this question is really simple the videos are data intensive. These videos are made of lots of pixels that change many times every second. This will increase the amount of information that is required to reach your device through the internet.

This kinda intense data usage is not something unique to YouTube. On average, streaming platforms like Hulu and Netflix uses more data. But YouTube data can be prevalent because of the unrestricted accessibility of this platform.

How Much Data Does YouTube Use?

Do you want to know How Much Data Does YouTube Use? And How To Track It? The main thing that will determine the amount of data YouTube uses is the quality of the streaming video. Mobile devices usually provided many quality ranges starting from 144p to 2160o or even to 4K quality. The higher the quality is the more data will be used. Though the figures can differ slightly it is really important to know how much data YouTube uses every hour when you stream videos at 480p or 720p.

How Much Data Does YouTube Use At 720p?

Let us know How Much Data Does YouTube Use? And How To Track It? Well, the standard frame rate for a YouTube video is 30FPS, known as Frames Per Second. For the 720p quality and above YouTube provides an increased frame rate of 60FPS. Though there is a higher rate which means you will get a smooth streaming experience. At the same time, it also means that you will get more data usage.

If you stream the 720p video at the 30FPS in an hour you will use around 1.24 GB of your data. This number can even increase to 1.86 GB if you choose the 60FPS option.

How Much Data Does YouTube Use At 480p?

Until and unless you change this manually the default resolution of YouTube playback will be 480p.

This has an average bitrate of 1,250Kbps. So, if you watch a 480p YouTube video you will consume something around 9.375 MB of data per minute. If you watch a YouTube video at 480p for an hour, then you will use 562MB of your data.

How To Track Youtube Data Usage?

When you keep track of your data usage, it will help you to know how your data is consumed and whether you actually need to cut back on your usage. If you want to keep a rack of your data, then here are a few steps that will help you to do for both iOS and Android devices.

How To Track Data Usage On iPhone?

How Much Data Does YouTube Use? And How To Track It?

To track data usage on your iPhone, here are a few things that you need to do:

Open the settings menu on your iPhone.
Then, you have to select the cellular option. Look for the YouTube option on the list and check the number below.

If you want to stop YouTube from using data, then just move the slider adjacent to the off option.

How To Track Data Usage On Android?

If you have an Android device and want to keep a track of your data, then follow these few steps:

Go to the settings option. Now, go to SIM Card and mobile network.
Next, you have to tap on data settings and data usage.
Now, you gotta choose YouTube from the list and you will get to see the usage breakdown. So this about How Much Data Does YouTube Use? And How To Track It?

How To Limit Data Usage?

Now, that we have discussed How Much Data Does YouTube Use? And How To Track It, let us know how to limit the data usage. If you want to limit the amount of data that has been used then you can do that, but it will be for Android users.

Go to YouTube. Tap on the profile picture which you will find in the upper right-hand side corner of the YouTube app.
Now, under your account choose the settings option. You have to go to the data saving mode option which you will find on the data saving the page.
Click on the toggle button to turn on this option.

Reduce YouTube Default Quality

To reduce the YouTube default quality, follow these easy steps:

On the YouTube app, press on your profile picture.
Next, go to the setting tab, and then select video quality preferences.
Here, choose the data saver option and you are done.

Set Default YouTube Quality Options

Do you know the YouTube app, allows you to set a general quality preference for all kinds of videos? In this way, you can avoid the HD playback while you are on the mobile date so that the Auto mode will not decide you to stream videos at 1080p.

First, click on the YouTube profile picture which you will find on the upper right-hand side of the screen, and then choose the settings option followed by the video quality preferences. Now, you have to choose auto, higher picture quality, and data saver as your default options. But you will get different options when you are on mobile data and Wi-Fi.

Turn Off Video AutoPlay On YouTube

The YouTube AutoPlay feature will keep the videos from coming when one video gets finished. this will waste your data if a video starts playing that you don’t want to play. So why not disable it when you don’t want to use it only.

To disable the AutoPlay feature, you will just find the AutoPlay slider at the top of any kind of video and just set it to the left side so that it shows a pause icon. When you do this, YouTube will stop loading the new videos on its own.

Wrapping Up:

Now, after reading this post you do know How Much Data Does YouTube Use? And How To Track It? If you have any questions then you can reach us in the comment section below.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How To Reduce YouTube Video Quality?

To reduce YouTube video quality, follow these steps:

Play any YouTube video. Then click on the Settings option on the screen.
Now, click on the quality option, and go to the advanced option.
From here, you can select the lower quality option.

Q. How To Disable Muted Playback?

To disable muted playback on YouTube, here’s what you need to do:

On YouTube, click on your profile picture.
Go to the settings tab, and select the general option.
Next, scroll down to the muted playback in feeds option, and choose the option off.