How much mobile data do I need for my trip?
Most travellers need 1GB to 3GB per week for maps and messaging alone, and 3GB to 5GB per week once social feeds and the occasional video call are included. Streaming video is what changes the answer: an hour a day of YouTube adds roughly 4GB a week by itself. Set your own habits below for a figure based on what you actually do.
Start from a profile
What will you use each day?
Answer for a typical day of the trip, not the whole trip.
Google Maps, Apple Maps, turn-by-turn directions
WhatsApp, iMessage, Telegram — text, photos, voice notes
Browsing, booking, boarding passes, checking email
Instagram, TikTok, Facebook — scrolling short video
Spotify, Apple Music at standard quality
YouTube, Netflix at the quality phones default to on cellular
FaceTime, WhatsApp video, Zoom
Tethering for work — docs, email, calls from a laptop
How much data does each app use?
Per hour of active use, at the quality a phone defaults to on a cellular connection. Video quality is the single biggest variable: the same YouTube hour is about 300MB at 480p and roughly 1.9GB at 1080p, which is why capping streaming quality saves more data than any other setting on the phone.
| Activity | Per hour | 1 hour a day for a week | Typical examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maps and navigation | 5MB | 35MB | Google Maps, Apple Maps, turn-by-turn directions |
| Messaging | 12MB | 84MB | WhatsApp, iMessage, Telegram — text, photos, voice notes |
| Web and email | 30MB | 210MB | Browsing, booking, boarding passes, checking email |
| Social feeds | 150MB | 1.0GB | Instagram, TikTok, Facebook — scrolling short video |
| Music streaming | 72MB | 504MB | Spotify, Apple Music at standard quality |
| Video streaming | 600MB | 4.1GB | YouTube, Netflix at the quality phones default to on cellular |
| Video calls | 270MB | 1.8GB | FaceTime, WhatsApp video, Zoom |
| Laptop hotspot | 250MB | 1.7GB | Tethering for work — docs, email, calls from a laptop |
Sources and method
Each rate is the midpoint of the range published by the service itself, at default cellular quality. On top of the activities you select, the estimate adds 15% for background traffic — app updates, cloud photo backup and push notifications — and then rounds upward to a plan-sized figure. Plan suggestions read the live Wanderly catalogue, and only ever show plans whose validity covers the whole trip.
- Google — Maps data usage — Navigation and map tiles
- WhatsApp — storage and data usage — Messaging and video calls
- YouTube — video quality settings — Video streaming at each resolution
- Netflix — how to control data usage — Video streaming per hour by setting
- Spotify — music quality and data — Audio streaming bitrates
Common questions
How much data do I need for a week abroad?
For a typical week-long holiday — maps, messaging, social feeds and a video call home — most travellers use 3GB to 5GB. Navigation and messaging are close to free in data terms. What moves the number is video: an hour a day of Instagram or TikTok adds roughly 1GB a week on its own, and an hour a day of YouTube adds about 4GB.
How much data does Google Maps use?
About 5MB per hour of active turn-by-turn navigation. It is one of the cheapest things you can do on a phone: a fortnight of heavy daily navigation is well under 1GB. Downloading offline maps over Wi-Fi before you fly removes even that.
How much data does one hour of Instagram or TikTok use?
Roughly 150MB per hour on a short-video feed at the quality a phone defaults to on cellular. Watching is the cost. Posting a few photos is negligible, but uploading video is not — a handful of stories a day adds up faster than most people expect.
How much data does a video call use?
Around 270MB per hour for FaceTime, WhatsApp video or Zoom on a phone. A ten-minute call home each evening comes to about 450MB across a ten-day trip, which is small enough that it rarely decides which plan you need.
Does this calculator include background data?
Yes. The estimate adds 15% on top of the activities you select, covering app updates, cloud photo backup and push notifications. Background traffic is the single most commonly forgotten item when travellers estimate by hand, and leaving it out is how people run out three days early.
What happens if I run out of data abroad?
Most Wanderly plans can be topped up in place, so you add data to the eSIM you already installed rather than buying and installing a second one. Even so, the calculator rounds upward on purpose: buying one size larger costs a few dollars, and running out mid-trip costs you the thing you bought the plan for.