Before you buy
How much data work video calls use
An hour-long meeting, screen sharing and sitting in a room with fifteen people don't cost the same. The figures, and how to get through a working day.
Claudia Ferrán 6 min Photo by Mike Enerio on Unsplash If you're going to work from abroad, this is the figure that decides the size of your plan. And it isn't one figure: a video call uses very different amounts depending on how many people are on it, who's sharing their screen and what quality it's set to.
The figures
| Situation | Per hour, roughly |
|---|---|
| Voice call with no video | 30 to 60 MB |
| One-to-one video call | 500 MB to 1 GB |
| Group meeting with cameras on | 1 to 1.5 GB |
| Sharing your screen | 300 to 800 MB |
| Camera off, just listening | 50 to 150 MB |
That last row is the most useful of the lot: turning your camera off and listening cuts usage to roughly a tenth.
A working day from abroad
With three hours of meetings a day and the rest of the time on email, cloud documents and messaging, a day runs between 2 and 4 GB. Over a working week, 10 to 20.
That's why people working while travelling usually need an unlimited or a large plan, while a holidaymaker gets by on very little.
Four things that work
- Turn your camera off when you aren't speaking. It saves more than anything else by a distance.
- Dial in by audio when the meeting is informational.
- Pause cloud syncing while you're on a call, or it'll compete for the connection.
- If you're tethering a laptop, mark the network as metered in the system settings.
What a laptop tethered to your phone uses is in tethering from an eSIM.
And latency, which isn't the same as data
A connection can have plenty of data and still handle a video call badly if latency is high, which happens on congested mobile networks or a long way from the server. If the meeting matters, test the connection a while beforehand and not five minutes before.
Frequently asked questions
How much data does an hour-long video call use?
Between 500 MB and 1 GB on a one-to-one call, and up to 1.5 GB in a group meeting with several cameras on.
How do I use less in meetings?
Turn your camera off when you aren't speaking and dial in by audio for informational meetings. It cuts usage to roughly a tenth.
How much data do I need to work abroad for a week?
Between 10 and 20 GB with three hours of meetings a day, plus email, documents and messaging.
Does screen sharing use a lot?
Less than camera video: between 300 and 800 MB an hour, depending on how much moves on the shared screen.
Why is my video call bad when I have signal?
Because call quality also depends on latency, not just speed. On congested mobile networks it can be poor with plenty of data available.
