How much data does Spotify use? It depends on the sound quality you choose. The higher it is, the more data the streaming service will burn through. In any case, Spotify uses way less data than video streaming services (more on this later) and probably less than most people think.

Data consumption of Spotify compared to YouTube. Given this scenario, watching 720p HD videos in YouTube, you may use up to 2.5GB of data per hour or as much as 4GB if it’s 1080p Full HD. If it’s 480p resolution, you still need more or less 600MB per hour. Clearly, Spotify is a far more efficient way of using your data if you’re just after music. Here is how you can enjoy Spotify music using no data from your phone data plan: 1. First, connect your phone to a wifi connection. You probably have access at home, work, school, hotels, or hotspots. Next, disable Cellular access to Spotify on your phone. On an iPhone, go to your “Settings / Cellular” page. Automatic (free & premium): Spotify will adjust your streaming quality based on your network connection. Low (free & premium): Streams music at 24 Kbps and will use approximately 90 MB per hour (or 0.09 GB per hour). Normal (free & premium): Streams music at 96 Kbps and will use approximately 345 MB per hour (or 0.35 GB per hour). With Music Freedom®, you can stream all the music you want while on our network—data charges do not apply. And it’s all included with your Simple Choice™ Plan. Limited-time offer; subject to change. Music Streaming: Qualifying plan required. Licensed music streaming from included services does not count toward high-speed data allotment on T-Mobile's network or in Canada/Mexico; music streamed using mobile hotspot (tethering) service might. I think many of you here on this subreddit also use Last.fm (and if you don't you definitely should, check it out here or visit r/lastfm), so here are some similar sites to them above which use Last.fm data instead of Spotify data. Last.fm Mainstream Calculator: How mainstream is music you listen to? My Music Habits: The name speaks for itself.

The Spotify Android app lets you choose between five sound quality settings: Low (24kbps), Normal (96kbps), High (160kbps), Very high (320kbps), and Automatic (dependent on your network connection). You can access these options by heading to Settings > Music Quality on your Android phone.

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To simplify things as much as possible, I’ve prepared an overview of how much data each setting uses per minute and hour as well as how long you’d have to stream music for to burn through 1GB of data. Keep in mind these numbers are approximate. Spotify can cache songs you’ve previously listened to, meaning they may not eat up the same amount of data the second time you play them.

Low (24kbps):

Per minute: 0.18MB
Per hour: 10.8MB
How long until you reach 1GB: 92.5 hours

Normal (96kbps):

Per minute: 0.72MB
Per hour: 43.2MB
How long until you reach 1GB: 23.1 hours

How much data does spotify free use per hour

High (160kbps):

Per minute: 1.2MB
Per hour: 72MB
How long until you reach 1GB: 13.8 hours

Very high (320kbps):

Per minute: 2.4MB
Per hour: 144MB
How long until you reach 1GB: 6.9 hours

Now that you know how much data Spotify uses, let’s see how the numbers compare to video streaming. Watching HD content on Netflix uses up to 3GB of data per hour or as much as 7GB when the resolution gets bumped up to Ultra HD. Medium quality (SD) is a lot less data hungry, burning through 0.7GB per hour. Still, that’s almost five times as much as streaming music with the best sound quality available (320kbps).

Apple Music vs Spotify vs Google Play Music

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What about Spotify’s competitors? Google Play Music and Deezer both offer a maximum audio bitrate of 320kbps, which uses approximately 144MB of data per hour. So does Tidal, although it also has a Hi-Fi plan with a bitrate of 1.411kbps for improved sound quality. It’s a lot more data hungry, using around 635MB per hour. Apple Music, on the other hand, has a maximum bitrate of 256kbps, which translates to around 115MB of data per hour.

Does Spotify Use Your Data

An important thing to keep in mind is that Spotify — as well as other streaming services mentioned in this post — lets you download songs to your phone, which means you don’t have to use any data at all when listening to music.

How Does Spotify Use Data

How many hours per week do you listen to music on Spotify or other streaming services? Let us know in the comments!

Does Free Spotify Use Data