Is 15 GB Enough for a Month?

Whether 15 GB will tide you over before the next billing period starts is entirely up to what you and your household do while online. The 15 GB amount will cover routine tasks like checking email, shopping online, online banking and scrolling social (but turn off video auto-play in the platform settings). Here’s a recap of data usage for common online activities. Bear in mind 1 GB contains 1000 MB.

Video streaming for an hour on Netflix uses 1 GB of data at standard video definition, 3 GB per hour at high definition (HD), and 7 GB per hour at Ultra HD. Manually select lower resolution so you don’t get the default “best available” 1080p HDs from the platform. In YouTube you can choose 360p or 480p under Quality settings in the gear icon at the lower right of the video screen.

Music Streaming uses 150 MB per hour depending on the streaming service. Watching the music video increments that.

Scrolling social media uses 120 MB per hour on average but watch out for the auto-play video, whether ads or editorial. You can burn through 160 MB per hour watching videos on social. Turn off the Auto-Play Video in Facebook under Settings / Videos / Video Settings.

Web Browsing uses 60 MB per hour but avoid watching videos if you can read the story instead.

If you use video conferencing regularly you might not have enough runway at 15 GB per month. A typical Zoom call with only 2 people in it, with both cameras on, uses 1 GB per hour. Even if you turn your camera off but others keep theirs on, you are using video data. Can you get away with calling in on your cell phone without video on?

You can check your current usage in your My Viasat phone app or in your account login online. Turn the Data Extender free feature to ON and it will save data.