How much data do I need?
Work out what a month of browsing, video and calls costs you in data, then see the cheapest bundle that covers it. It runs in your browser — nothing is stored, and you do not need an account.
How much data common activities use
Per hour, as a range. The spread is real — the same video costs several times more at 1080p than at 480p — so treat these as planning figures rather than exact measurements.
| Activity | Data per hour |
|---|---|
| Web browsing & social feedsText and photos are light; a feed full of autoplaying video is not. | 60–250 MB |
| Music streamingStandard quality is light. High quality roughly triples it. | 40–150 MB |
| YouTube / video (480p)The lightest way to watch video, and what most people mean by 'SD'. | 250–550 MB |
| YouTube / video (720p–1080p)1080p can use several times what 720p does for a small gain in quality. | 0.7–2.9 GB |
| Video calls (WhatsApp, Zoom, Meet)Depends on the codec and how much the picture moves; group calls cost more. | 0.2–1.5 GB |
| Online gamingPlay itself is light; the updates it downloads are not. | 40–300 MB |
| Large downloads & app updatesBounded by your speed, not by the activity — a big game is tens of GB. | 1–5.9 GB |
These are planning estimates, not measurements. Real usage depends on your device, the quality you stream at and the network's compression.
How to make your data last longer
Most people who run out of data do not need a bigger bundle — they need to stop a few things quietly using it in the background.
Lower the video quality on mobile data
This is the single biggest saving for most people. Dropping YouTube or Netflix from 1080p to 480p cuts the data for the same watch time by several times over, and on a phone screen the difference is hard to see.
Turn off autoplay in your social apps
A feed that plays every video as you scroll can quietly use far more than anything you chose to watch. Turning autoplay off means a video only costs data when you tap it.
Download on Wi-Fi, watch on the move
Music and podcasts you download at home cost nothing from your bundle. Streaming the same thing on the way to work costs data every time.
Stop apps updating over mobile data
App updates are some of the largest downloads a phone makes, and they often happen in the background without asking. Setting your app store to update over Wi-Fi only removes a hidden monthly cost.
Watch for background data
Photo backup, cloud sync and location sharing all run quietly. On most phones you can see which apps used data in the last month and restrict the ones that do not need it.
Questions about data usage
- How much data do I need per month?
- It depends almost entirely on video. Add up what you do in the calculator above — an hour of browsing is a few dozen MB, while an hour of HD video can be several GB — and it will total your month and suggest a plan that covers it.
- Why does the calculator give a range instead of one number?
- Because there is no single true figure. The same video uses far less at 480p than at 1080p, and a video call varies with the connection. A range is honest about that; a single number would be confidently wrong for most people. The plan it recommends is sized to the top of the range, so it does not run out.
- Is the cheapest plan always the best value?
- No. The cheapest plan is usually the smallest bundle, and price per GB is what actually compares a 1GB plan with a 10GB one. On the marketplace page you can see the best price per GB across every network, which is a different answer from the lowest price.
- Do I need an account to use this?
- No. The calculator runs in your browser, and you can buy the plan it suggests as a guest. An account is only needed if you want a wallet balance and your order history in one place.
Ready to compare prices?
Once you know how much you need, the comparison table shows the lowest live price for every bundle size on MTN, Airtel, Glo and 9mobile — and which one is the best value per GB.
Compare data prices across networks