For some users, 15GB of mobile hotspot can last for a complete month, while for other tech geeks, this data might end in the evening. So, everything depends on the usage standards of the user. Whether you are using a dedicated hotspot or a mobile hotspot, you might be thinking about how long will 15GB of mobile hotspot data enough, here’s our informative guide to understanding this better.
Is 15GB Of Mobile Hotspot Data Enough?
The lifespan of your 15 GB of mobile hotspot data is proportional to how you use it. A user’s download or upload speed determines how quickly different online activities consume data. Interestingly, one activity that consumes a lot of data is watching a 4K video or at least a 1080P video, while other activities like listening to music or sending emails consume much less data.
If you were limited to 15GB of data and had to do these things in low definition, you would have about 50 hours to do so. Streaming content from Netflix or Prime Video will consume more data than any other possible use. In 21 hours, at 700MB/hr, you would end up using all 15GB.
How Much is 15 GB of Hotspot Data?
Even in today’s time, 15GB may seem like a lot, but it can be gone in a few days if you stream videos regularly. Even in the year 2023, 15GB of data is quite a good amount if you plan to use it in the form of mobile hotspot. However, the rise of online streaming services has reduced this number significantly from even a decade ago.
If all you do is check your email and surf the web, 15GB should last you a whole month. The situation changes drastically once you begin downloading media files such as movies, songs, and applications. Practically, 15GB of mobile hotspot data should last pretty long for elder users who use their phones only for Facebook and WhatsApp.
But for this content-consuming generation where the majority of time is spent on watching YouTube, Netflix, and Instagram Reels, 15GB would hardly last a week if used wisely.
Data Usage in Terms of Activity
We have figured out the typical data consumption for the most popular online activities down below. Now, you can calculate your daily data consumption by multiplying your current data usage by the average number of hours you spend on this task.
Complete this procedure for each, and then tally your results. After that, divide by 30 to get a rough idea of your monthly consumption. Even if you just have 15GB of mobile hotspot left for this month, don’t worry because there’s something you can still take from it.
Simple Internet Browsing
Data usage for loading an average web page is around 2MB. That’s not very much. That means, you can access more than 7,500 websites with 15 GB of data. That might seem great.
But if you start visiting websites that have lots of images or content, such as Reddit or Quora, your website data usage will increase exponentially. It might even to 15MB per website. Now this means, you only have 10 days with 15GB of data if you regularly visit these websites.
However, if you keep your choices to limited to news and entertainment websites you are good to go for 30 days straight. If you are lucky, you could even have some carry-over data left for next month.
Video Streaming
This is where you will feel the shortage of data. If you are a binge-watcher, you will quickly feel the need to recharge if you are streaming video. Doesn’t matter if you are using Netflix or Prime, or any other service you wish, 15 GB of data won’t last long for this purpose.
For practical usage, here are the patterns we have recorded:
Standard Video or Better uses around 600 MB per hour. This translates to roughly 23 hours of Standard video streaming.
If you wish to bump up the quality with Good or High Definition, consumption will rise to 1GB per hour. This translates to a maximum of 15 hours of video-watching experience.
Now, bumping up the quality further, we have Full HD. Often termed in OTT Platforms as Better. This will eat up around 2.5GB of data per hour. This seems a lot and will last you a maximum of 5 to 6 hours. So, all in all, you can watch 2 good movies. Forget watching a television series like the House of the Dragon.
Nobody with 15GB would watch a 4K video unless he is using it as a backup plan. But for them, 4K video will last for a maximum of 3 hours, depending on the quality of the graphics. If the video contains HDR, it won’t last more than 2 hours.
Video Calling
Video calling data usage will depend on the platform you are using. Suppose you are using WhatsApp for video calls, then it will roughly consume 60-70 MB/hr. However, if you use Zoom for video calling, the data rate will bump up wot 150 MB/hr.
This spike is generally due to quality, and Zoom is made for professional purposes. However, you can get tons of settings to tweak things a bit on the lower side.
Finally, if you wish to use Skype for video calls, your data usage will go far beyond this to a massive 250MB/hr. Still, with just video calls, you can expect to last your 15 GB data for more than 2 weeks depending on your usage pattern.
Online Gaming
This is where a lot of users get confused. Gamers often think that online gaming takes up a lot of data but that’s a myth. Look, the game is already installed on your system, and the views are generated from your system.
That means the data consumed is only spent on pulling the stats and online player activities. As a result, online gaming doesn’t consume a lot of data. Practically, you can expect to spend around 150-200MB of data per hour in the case of online gaming.
However, the whole scene changes in the case of MOBA games. MOBA games, as in League of Legends. These kinds of games take around 250MB or more every hour you play them.
Chatting
Chatting apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, or Viber don’t use much data if you can restrict data usage. If you wish to chat with your friends or family for a long time, we recommend that you restrict data usage so that photos and videos don’t get downloaded and you can enjoy chatting for months.
The Bottom Line
15GB of mobile hotspot is enough depending on your use case. You can survive with 15 GB of data for the whole month if you sparsely watch YouTube videos or Stream Netflix and mostly chat and browse the web. On the other hand, if you want to watch videos, video call, and download music, 15GB of data will last for 4-5 days.
If you are stuck with 15GB of mobile hotspot, we recommend that you turn on Data Saver if on the phone or turn on Metered Connection if using it on a desktop. That’s all we have here about how much is 15GB of mobile hotspot. We hope this guide has helped you.
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