How Much Data Do I Need For Travel?

Imagine you are on a world tour and visiting the most iconic countries and regions of the world. You capture your picture with a stunning snow-capped mountain background and post it on Instagram, but your device is showing no internet. This situation leads to the unwanted stress. Before travelling, you must consider how much data you need for travel to avoid such a situation. Monitor your daily data use and buy the data plan according to your stay.

In this article, I will go through the details of how much data you may require for travel and what is the best solution to enjoy a stable internet connection.

Why more data is required during your travel?

Usually, you require more data during travel according to your estimate. Here are some reasons why more data is required during your travel.

Unstable WiFi Connection

Restaurants and hotels offer public WiFi, which allows your device to access the data connection. But, public WiFi is usually slow and restricted to use in the coverage area. Thus, travellers need to rely on cellular data.

Use of Navigational App

The frequent use of navigational apps like Google Maps to track the live locations and checking the updates takes a good data amount.

Social Media Apps

The more you will use social media apps the more data will consumed. Thus, you must consider whether you are a light, moderate or high data user and buy the plan accordingly.

Online Music and Video Streaming

During international travel, streaming music or videos for entertainment is a major data-consuming activity.

Here is the data distribution for one weak based on light, moderate and high data users.

Data User	Duration	Data	Activities
Light user	Per week	1 GB	Email, browsing, messaging
Moderate user	Per week	3-5 GB	Maps, music streaming, and social media
Heavy user	Per week	10+ GB	Video calls, streaming shows, and uploads

How much data do you need for travel?

The data consumption depends on how many apps you use during 24 hours. You will require an internet connection to perform your daily activities, including browsing, social media use, location tracking and sending SMS and emails. Let’s go through the details of how much data you require during international travelling while using different apps.

Google Meet Video Calling

Data consumption for Google Meet is not similar for everyone. It depends on at which quality you are hosting a meeting. At low quality, Google Meet consumes 270 MBs per hour. Standard quality uses 540 MBs, and high quality consumes 1 GB of data in an hour.

Browsing the Internet and Checking Mails

Browsing the internet and checking mail is a low data-consuming activity. It only requires 1 to 50 MBs per hour.

Netflix Data Consumption

Netflix data usage depends on the resolution quality. With the adjustment of the video quality, you can manage the data consumption. On average, streaming for four hours takes almost 1GB of data. During travel, you should download your favourite shows and movies for entertainment to avoid high data consumption. You can turn on the data saver or the data limit to avoid extra usage.

Streaming YouTube

YouTube is considered a highly data-consuming app. While streaming at the standard definition, it takes 500MB per hour. Streaming at 4K consumes 16GB per hour. You can limit the data consumption by adjusting the video quality.

Using Social Media

While using social media, data consumption depends on how much time you spend on different platforms. TikTok and Instagram are highly data-consuming apps compared to the others. Here is the per-hour data consumption of using different social media apps.

Snapchat: 720MB
TikTok: 840MB
Twitter: 360MB
Facebook: 470MB
Instagram: 650MB

Google Maps Data Consumption

During travel, Google Maps is the essential app you require to take route updates. It almost takes 3-5 MB of mobile data per hour. You can download the offline map to reduce data usage.

How to confirm the data usage?

To get an accurate data amount, you should monitor your daily data use activities. Go through the following settings to confirm the data consumption.

iPhone Device:

Go to Settings on your iPhone.
Move to Cellular or Settings.
Scroll to Mobile Service/Data.
Scroll down to app consumption.

Android Device:

Open Android device Settings.
Move to Connections and then to Data Usage.
Click on Mobile Data Usage.
Scroll to see app consumption.

Buy an eSIM Unlimited Data Plan to Stay Connected

eSIM is the best solution to get connected worldwide during international travel. Users can access the seamless connection with remote activation. Embedded SIM is considered more secure than the physical SIM card and allows to use of multiple cellular networks in a single device. To enjoy your trip without any stress, you should buy the Yaalo eSIM.

Yaalo offers eSIM limited and unlimited data-only and data, voice and text plans. If you are planning to visit the USA, France, Germany, Turkey, Vietnam or Switzerland during the upcoming summer vacations, eSIM will be your best connectivity companion.

Conclusion

During international travel, the most common question travelers must consider is how much data do I need for travel. You should monitor your daily data use on different apps and buy the data plan accordingly. In this article, I have discussed how much data the apps use for navigation, entertainment and calling. Despite SIM card data plans and public WiFi, if you are looking for an affordable and convenient internet solution, try an eSIM card. It is a travel-friendly SIM that offers remote activation with instant connectivity.

FAQs

How much data do I need for a 2-week vacation?

It depends on whether you are a light or heavy data user. On average, for light data users, 3 to 5 GB of data is enough. At the same time, the heavy data user will require more than 10 GB of data for 2-week vacations.