What this calculator does
The Streaming Data Usage Calculator estimates how many gigabytes (GB) of internet data you consume while watching Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, or any other video service. By combining the stream's bitrate (in megabits per second, Mbps) with how long you watch, it shows your data use per hour, per day, and a projected monthly total — handy for staying under a mobile or home broadband data cap.
How to use it
Pick a streaming quality preset (the typical bitrate is shown for each), or choose "Custom bitrate" and enter your own Mbps value. Then enter how many hours you watch per day and over how many days. The calculator instantly returns your total data used and a 30-day projection.
The formula explained
Video is measured in megabits per second (Mbps), but data caps are in gigabytes (GB). Multiplying Mbps by 3600 converts per-second to per-hour; dividing by 8 converts megabits to megabytes; dividing by 1000 converts megabytes to gigabytes:
$$\text{GB} = \frac{\text{bitrate}}{8} \times \text{hours} \times \frac{3600}{1000}$$
This simplifies to \(\text{GB per hour} = \text{bitrate} \times 0.45\). So a 5 Mbps Full HD stream uses about 2.25 GB every hour.
Worked example
Suppose you stream Full HD 1080p at 5 Mbps for 2 hours a day for 30 days. Per hour: $$\frac{5}{8} \times \frac{3600}{1000} = 2.25 \text{ GB}.$$ Over 2 hours/day that's 4.5 GB daily, and across 30 days that's 135 GB total.
FAQ
Are the preset bitrates exact? No — they are typical averages. Real bitrate varies by content, codec (H.264 vs HEVC vs AV1) and network conditions, so treat results as estimates.
Why divide by 8? Bitrate is in bits, but storage/data caps are in bytes, and \(1 \text{ byte} = 8 \text{ bits}\).
Does 4K really use that much? Yes — at ~25 Mbps, 4K uses roughly 11.25 GB per hour, which can exhaust a cap quickly.
