Before you buy
How much data Instagram uses when you're travelling
Reels and stories are what really empty a data plan. How much each part uses, and the settings that halve it.
Dani Requena 7 min Photo by Sebastian Pena Lambarri on Unsplash If a data plan runs out early on a trip, Instagram is the most likely culprit. Not because each photo weighs much, but because almost everything you see in the app now is video that plays by itself, and video is the most expensive thing there is in megabytes.
How much it uses, by type of use
Rough figures, which depend on the quality the video is served at and on your connection speed: the better the connection, the higher the quality the app sends and the more it uses.
| What you're doing | Per hour, roughly |
|---|---|
| Scrolling the feed with photos | 100 to 150 MB |
| Watching stories | 200 to 350 MB |
| Watching reels non-stop | 400 MB to 1 GB |
| Text direct messages | under 10 MB |
| Uploading a photo | 2 to 5 MB per photo |
| Uploading a story with video | 10 to 30 MB per story |
The row that matters is reels. Half an hour of reels on a terrace while you wait for dinner can be 500 MB, which is more than maps use across the entire trip.
The three settings that cut it down
- Switch on data saver inside the app itself, in the media data usage settings. It lowers video quality and stops preloading things you haven't watched yet.
- Turn off video autoplay wherever the app allows it. That's the difference between watching what you choose and downloading everything that scrolls past.
- Set uploads of your own photos and videos in high quality to wifi only. Post at the hotel, not on the beach.
Posting while travelling: the real sum
Posting uses less than people fear. A normal photo is around 3 MB and a story with a short video between 10 and 30. Somebody posting five stories and two photos a day lands at roughly 100 MB daily, which over two weeks is a gigabyte and a half.
What spikes isn't posting: it's what you watch between posts.
And the silent thief: photo backup
On a trip you take hundreds of photos, and plenty of phones upload them to the cloud on their own the moment they find a connection. That can be a gigabyte a day without anyone looking at the screen.
It isn't Instagram, but it gets blamed on it constantly, and it's the first setting to check before you fly: photo backup on wifi only.
How much data to buy if you're a poster
With data saver on and backups on wifi, somebody posting daily and browsing normally sits between 700 MB and 1.2 GB a day. Without either of those settings, it climbs easily to 2 GB.
The full sum by type of traveller is in how much data you actually use on a trip.
Frequently asked questions
How much data does Instagram use per hour?
Between 100 and 150 MB scrolling photos, between 200 and 350 watching stories, and from 400 MB to 1 GB watching reels back to back. Video is what makes the difference.
How much does uploading a story use?
A photo is around 3 MB and a story with a short video between 10 and 30. Posting uses far less than watching other people's content.
How do I make Instagram use less data?
Switch on data saver in the app, turn off video autoplay and keep high quality uploads for wifi.
Why does my data run out if I only look at Instagram for a bit?
Because reels and stories are video, and video uses in an hour what maps use in a week. On top of that there's usually photo backup, uploading on its own.
How much data do I need if I post daily?
Between 700 MB and 1.2 GB a day with data saver on and backups on wifi. Without those settings, reckon on around 2 GB a day.
