Data allowance has been the most important component of a mobile contract all through the 4G era. It’s even more crucial during the 5G era.
Your data allowance is what gets used every time you access the internet from your phone without a Wi-Fi connection. Social media, YouTube videos, music streaming, direct messaging, and web browsing all consume data while you’re out and about.
With 5G’s exponential increase in mobile network performance and capacity, you may be concerned over how this will cost you - both in terms of megabytes of data allowance and, ultimately, money. Here’s a rundown on how much data you can expect to use on a 5G network.
The short answer is no – 5G doesn’t use more data than 4G. If you download a file or load up a web page, it will take exactly the same amount of data to do that over 5G as over 4G.
Yet data use on 5G often will be higher. Why? Simply because it allows for higher data activities. For example, with 5G you could breeze through a 4K film download, while on 4G you might be tempted to stick with a 1080p version so that you won’t be waiting for it all day.
In some cases you might even choose to download a file, app or game over 5G that you wouldn’t even attempt on 4G due to the size.
Some services will also default to higher-quality, more data-heavy versions when on a 5G connection than on 4G. For example, video streaming apps might deliver higher quality streams if they see that your data connection is fast enough to handle it.
And looking ahead, 5G could soon use even more data, as it’s set to enable whole new use cases on mobile and beyond, from 360-degree video to holograms, smart cities and more, with your phone set to be at the centre of your 5G-connected life.
So no, 5G doesn’t use more data than 4G, but the things we’ll increasingly be doing with it do.
According to Ofcom's Communications Market Report 2020, the average UK phone owner used 2.9GB of mobile data per month in the first half of 2019. That marks a 34% increase over the previous year.
The second half of 2019 - which also happened to be the first 6 months of 5G availability - saw a further increase of 22% to 3.6GB of data. Then in 2020 the average monthly amount was 4.5GB according to Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2021. This was a further 27% rise, and that’s despite the pandemic meaning that most people in the UK will have been out and about utilising 4G and 5G networks much less, with increased reliance on home Wi-Fi.
Data use continued to rise in 2021, according to Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2022. That year it increased by 24% to 5.6GB per month. So data use is rapidly growing, and that’s likely driven at least in part by the increased availability of high-speed mobile data – most notably 5G.
It's perhaps useful, then, to break down what some of the basic online activities consume in terms of data. Where we provide a wide range in the chart below, that’s because different sites and services use quite varied data amounts.
| Activity | Average data use (per hour) |
|---|---|
| Web browsing/social media | 20-120MB |
| Instant messaging | 50MB |
| 1MB (without attachments) | |
| Music streaming | 100MB |
| Video streaming | 250MB |
| Online gaming | 3-300MB |
| Video calling | 200-300MB |
With 1GB (1000MB) of data, you could browse the web, use social media, and check your email for 10 hours or so. Spread over a month, that's really not that much. You could also stream around 10 hours of music, using services like Spotify or Apple Music. Though the exact amount will depend on the service and the audio quality you choose.
On the video streaming front, Netflix uses about 1GB of mobile data every six hours on its Save Data setting, 1GB every four hours on Automatic, and 3GB per hour or more on the Maximum Data setting. So you could watch several movies at a sub-optimal SD resolution, or just 20 minutes of content in high quality. Numbers will vary on other video services, but expect that sort of ballpark in most cases. In a nutshell, then, 1GB of data allows one of the following:
With 2GB (2000MB) of data, you could browse the web, use social media, and check your email for 20 hours or so. Spread over a month, that's really not that much. You could also stream around 20 hours of music, using services like Spotify or Apple Music.
On the video streaming front, you could watch around four movies a month in medium quality on Netflix. In a nutshell, then, 2GB of data allows for one of the following:
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Recommended deal |
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|---|---|---|
 |
2GB data Unlimited mins & texts |
£7.50 per month |
4GB of data is about what your average non-5G user will use in a month. With this amount - which equates to 4000MB - you could browse the web, check your social media, and keep on top of your email for around 40 hours. Alternatively, you could stream music for around 40 hours.
You could alternatively manage up to 8 films per month on medium quality, or just about one film in high definition. While this is proven to be enough for the average user, it still isn't a media addict's paradise, then.
4GB data sample monthly usage:
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Recommended deal |
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|---|---|---|
 |
5GB data Unlimited mins & texts |
£6 per month |
With 8GB of data (8000MB), we're getting more into advanced usage territory. You could web browse, check your social media, and keep on top of your email for a full 80 hours with this much data on tap. Alternatively, you could stream music for 80 hours - that's more than two and a half hours per day.
Apart from that, it would be possible to stream up to around 16 movies in medium quality each month, or one to two at high definition.
8GB data sample monthly usage:
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Recommended deal |
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|---|---|---|
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8GB data Unlimited mins & texts |
£7 per month |
Now we're starting to get somewhere. With 12GB of data, you'll be able to tackle most things. 120 hours of emailing, web browsing and social media, or the same number of hours of music streaming should be more than sufficient.
On the video front, you'll be able to watch up to around 24 films on medium quality, or around 3 high-definition movies. Alternatively, you could just about be able to watch one full UHD or 4K movie.
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Recommended deal |
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|---|---|---|
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16GB data Unlimited mins & texts |
£4 per month |
With 30GB of data per month, you're well into the kind of territory that will be suitable for heavy 5G usage. With 30GB (30000MB) at your disposal, you basically won't have to worry about the impact emailing, web browsing and social media will have on your usage. With typical usage you'd have to exceed 300 hours of this in order to push past your limits, as you would when it comes to music streaming.
But it's video streaming that really benefits from when you get to this much data and higher. With 30GB, you could stream a Netflix movie in medium quality every day and still have lots of data left over. So this is ideal to get you through a full month of commutes. You could bump up the quality to the maximum offered on mobile data and still watch around 5 movies – though as ever we’re only talking about Netflix here. Data use on other platforms varies, as does the Netflix website (this is when streaming from the app). Still, you’re looking at roughly the following:
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Recommended deal |
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|---|---|---|
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32GB data Unlimited mins & texts |
£8 per month |
100GB of data is close to being unlimited, and is far more than most people will use. However, it still comes in handy if you want to watch lots of films in the best possible quality. You could watch for example around 17 movies in top quality on the Netflix app with this allowance.
Most other data uses will have a negligible impact on this allowance, unless you’re regularly downloading massive games, apps and other files over mobile data.
But otherwise, whether browsing the net, instant messaging, or even carrying out video calls or playing online games, you could spend most of your month doing so and still have data left over in most cases. You can see some sample usage below:
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Recommended deal |
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|---|---|---|
 |
120GB data Unlimited mins & texts |
£12 a month |
Most people don’t need unlimited data, but if you looked at the 100GB section above and weren’t sure that would be enough, that you might be one of the few that does.
Beyond watching 4K movies on a regular basis, unlimited data also comes in handy if you want to regularly tether your phone to other devices to get them online. That’s because things like laptops and consoles can use a lot more data than a smartphone, and our totals above are only for smartphone use. Once you’re loading desktop pages, driving big screens, and sites like Netflix think you’re connected to Wi-Fi (as they will when tethering), data use can skyrocket.
Of course, having an unlimited data plan also future-proofs you if you think your data use might go up substantially before your contract is due for renewal, so it can be reassuring to have – especially if you plan to make heavy use of 5G.
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Recommended deal |
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|---|---|---|
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Unlimited data Unlimited mins & texts |
£21 month |
While we've established that 5G doesn't inherently consume more data than 4G, it is still leading to a considerable increase in data usage.
Data from the first year or so of 5G shows that data consumption on 5G is significantly higher. Opensignal found that in six leading 5G countries during September 2020, 5G smartphone users consumed between 1.7 and 2.7 times more mobile data than 4G users.
In the UK specifically, 5G phone users consumed 2.5 times more mobile data than 4G users. The average 5G data consumption stood at 17.4GB, which is also instructive.
Naturally there's a certain case of early adopter syndrome at play here, with the first users of any new technology tending to be the most heavily invested - both financially and emotionally. But new 5G-enabled applications (such as 360-degree video and augmented reality) are going to lead to a further exponential increase in data usage, and indeed we are seeing data use increase with each passing year.
As noted by Mobliciti, the general consensus seems to be that in 2022, average mobile data consumption could have been around 20GB per month. We don’t have 2022 data for all networks, but the average data use on Three was 25.1GB. That’s up 32% from its 19GB average in 2021. Now, Three’s users do tend to use more data than those on other networks, so an average of around 20GB per month across networks could be right.
Then again, based on the current rate of data use increase, detailed in the ‘how much data do we use’ section of this article, we’d be surprised if the average has hit 20GB per month – but data consumption is certainly going up, and fast.
Further evidence for that comes from Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2022 report, which found that overall mobile traffic grew 27% in 2022, suggesting that customers across the UK are using more data – and with 5G traffic accounting for 9% of total mobile traffic (up from just 3% in 2021), a lot of the overall traffic growth is going to be down to 5G.
In terms of the nature of that growing mobile traffic and data consumption, mobile infrastructure giant Ericsson predicts that “Three hours more video content will be consumed on mobile devices weekly when away from home, of which one hour will be on AR/VR glasses in a 5G future”. It also notes that “Half of all users expect their mobile cellular data usage to increase significantly on 5G, and 1 in 5 could see an increase of 10 times, with usage of 200GB per month”.
After an initial bout of high-priced 5G contracts, as network operators sought to recoup some of their initial rollout costs, monthly fees have stabilised significantly. In most cases, 5G access is all part of the package.
So how much should you be looking to spend on your 5G data today? Based on those aforementioned stats and projections, if you were starting a 24-month 5G contract in 2023, you would ideally want at least 25GB of data allowance each month – though of course that may vary based on your own data needs. That 25GB figure is in line with the average data used by Three’s customers, and likely below the overall UK average – but then that average is sure to grow over the two years of your contract.
Prices for that vary, but the cost of a 5G phone needn’t be high, as most handsets above around £200 (which is budget phone territory) support 5G, and these won’t add too much to the price of a contract – or can be affordably bought outright.
Check out our feature and deals page covering the 5G phones for all budgets if you'd like more information on the available phones.
Of course, you might well already have a 5G phone since this is now a fairly standard smartphone feature, in which case – or if you plan to buy a 5G phone outright – you’ll want to look at 5G SIM Only plans.
Prices for these will vary so click the link above for all the latest and best deals, but as an example, at the time of writing you can get 25GB of data on Three for just £8 per month on a 12-month contract.
Want more data? You can get 120GB for £12 per month and unlimited data for £19 per month. That’s again on a 12-month contract, but prices can be even lower if you opt for a 24-month plan. Or if you’d rather have more flexibility you can pay slightly more per month and choose a 30-day rolling plan.
Prices on the other big networks are typically higher, but still quite affordable, with O2 currently charging £20 for 25GB of data on a 12-month plan, and Vodafone charging £24 for 20GB on a 12-month plan.
These prices may well have changed by the time you read this – and Three’s are so cheap in part because some of those are exclusive offers for 5G.co.uk, so again, click the link above for all the latest deals and exclusives. But that should give you an idea of what to expect, and smaller networks like Smarty and iD Mobile (which you’ll also find on our site) are sometimes even more affordable.
The ever-growing availability of 5G is bringing about increased performance, and with it new data-hungry applications. Inevitably, this is leading to a massive increase in mobile data usage.
Whether you’re streaming higher quality video, controlling an increased number of connected devices, or taking advantage of the new data-hungry applications that are right around the corner, the simple fact is most of us are going to be needing far more generous data allowances when we sign up for our next mobile contract.
Thankfully, signing up to a 5G contract is no longer an expensive option aimed exclusively at early adopters. Getting connected to the speediest of networks is now all part of the package, and crucially, operators are increasing their data allowances accordingly.
There are plenty of unlimited data and 100GB+ packages out there right now. From what we've learned, however, the average 5G user should find around 25GB of monthly data allowance to be sufficient throughout their next contract.
Jon has nine years experience of writing and editing copy for leading publications, as well as attending technology shows and events and conducting interviews. Currently working with 5G.co.uk, TechRadar, Trusted Reviews, T3, Digital Spy, What Mobile, Pocket Gamer, and The Gadget Show.
James has been writing for us for over 10 years. Currently, he is Editorial Manager for our group of companies ( 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk) and sub-editor at TechRadar. He specialises in smartphones, mobile networks/ technology, tablets, and wearables.
In the past, James has also written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media, Smart TV Radar, and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV. He has a film studies degree from the University of Kent, Canterbury, and has over a decade’s worth of professional writing experience.
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