It is true that telephone operators offer more and more rates with large amounts of data, cumulative for other months even. This responds, among other things, to all those people who take their mobile and enjoy watching Netflix on the train home or in the park, for example. The problem with this is that if we are not aware of the consumption that Netflix makes we can run out of data in the blink of an eye, so our browsing speed would drop enormously. In this article we explain how much data you consume by regularly watching Netflix content, and we give you some tips to avoid running out of it.
This is the data you consume watching Netflix
The first thing we must bear in mind is that we cannot simply release a data figure. This is because the amount of data that Netflix consumes always varies depending on the quality of the content we see. The platform has four types of image quality, from lowest to highest: 480p, 720p, 1080p and 4K. It is true that the platform also distinguishes between its content between 4K with and without HDR, but in this case there is no difference between the data consumption of both.
Already made clear the types of resolutions in which Netflix broadcasts its content, These are the data that the platform consumes every hour depending on the resolution of the content we see:
- Resolution 480p (or lower): We will consume 300 Mb every hour.
- Resolution 720p (or medium): We will consume 700 Mb every hour.
- 1080p (or high) resolution: We will consume 3 GB every hour.
- 4K resolution: We will consume 7 GB every hour.
As you can see, the data consumption varies enormously as the quality of the content goes up. A person who has, say, a rate with 50 GB of monthly data, will not have a problem to see content in medium resolution, but it would be if he saw content in 4K. In order to better contextualize these numbers, these would be the data consumption figures every 30 days if we use Netflix one hour a day:
- low quality
- Every day: 9 GB per month
- Five times a week: 6.6 GB per month
- Three times a week: 3.9 GB per month
- Once a week: 1.2 GB per month
- Medium quality
- Every day: 21 GB per month
- Five times a week: 15.4 GB per month
- Three times a week: 9.1 GB per month
- Once a week: 2.8 GB per month
- High quality
- Every day: 90 GB per month
- Five times a week: 66 GB per month
- Three times a week: 9.1 GB per month
- Once a week: 15 GB per month
- 4K quality
- Every day: 210 GB per month
- Five times a week: 154 GB per month
- Three times a week: 91 GB per month
- Once a week: 28 GB per month
It is worth mentioning that these figures are approximate, since there are other factors at play in addition to the resolution of the content. Netflix has content in its catalog that is broadcast at 60 fps, for example, including content with different bitrates. If we take into account that the higher the bit and frame rate we are going to have a higher consumption, two contents at the same quality could have different data consumption.
Control the data that Netflix consumes
As you can see, if we are not attentive to the content we see, we can run out of data for the entire month in just a couple of days. Obviously, it is very annoying to have to watch continuously if we are going to see something in 4K or in a high resolution, but luckily this will not be necessary. Netflix makes an option available to us within its settings so that we can limit or even prevent data consumption. Activating it is very simple. and for this we will only have to follow the following steps:
- Within the Netflix application, press the upper right button with your profile logo.
- On the new screen, select «Application Settings«.
- We will choose the first option that appears on the screen, «Mobile data usage«.
- By default, it appears automatic. This option will always seek a balance between quality and data consumption.
- If we choose “Only WiFi”, the application will never use the data that we have contracted.
- If we choose «Save data», the app will limit consumption to 1 GB every 6 hours.
- If we choose “Maximum data” we will not have any type of consumption limitation.
Screens to limit Netflix data consumption.
Control the resolution of the content you see
Another option that we also have to be able to limit data consumption is to establish a limitation for the quality of the content that we see. By default, Netflix will always show us the content we choose in the highest possible quality (and that our plan supports), but we have the possibility to limit it. Doing it is very simple, although in this case we will have to go to the web.
- Once you have entered your credentials on the web, choose the profile you want.
- Go to the upper right corner and click on your profile icon
- In the new window, click on the arrow next to the profile
- With the dropdown open, choose the last option “Playback Settings”
- Here we can choose between 3 types of screen uses. For mobiles we recommend not choosing above “Medium”.
So we can limit the resolution of Netflix content.
One of the advantages it has is that this configuration is individual for each profile, so we can have one that is intended for content on the mobile in order to spend less data. If you want to save as much data as possible, but without giving up being able to watch Netflix wherever you go, we recommend that you always activate the Save Data option. In addition, you will always have the option to download at home the content you plan to watch outside of itand so we can reserve our data for other more important things.