How Much Data Do I Need a Month?
Light, average or heavy user: how many GB a month each really needs, what the big apps use, what real phones on Dataly use a day, and how to pick your plan.
4 min readUpdated
The short answer
Most people need between 3 GB and 20 GB of mobile data a month. Light users (WhatsApp, browsing, a little social media) can manage on 3 to 5 GB. If you watch videos or scroll TikTok and Instagram on mobile data every day, plan for 15 GB or more.
The phones that share Dataly's anonymous weekly report used about 590 MB of mobile data a day on average, which is about 18 GB a month.
Which kind of user are you?
- Light, 3 to 5 GB: WhatsApp chats and voice notes, some browsing, Google Maps, music downloaded on Wi-Fi.
- Average, 8 to 12 GB: all of the above plus Instagram, Facebook and some YouTube on mobile data.
- Heavy, 15 GB and up: daily TikTok or Reels, video calls, streaming, or sharing a hotspot with a laptop.
What the big apps use
- Netflix: about 1 GB an hour in SD, up to 3 GB in HD.
- HD video call (Zoom, 720p): about 1.1 GB an hour. Audio only is about 60 MB.
- Spotify on High: about 70 MB an hour.
- Google Maps navigation: about 2 to 10 MB an hour.
So one hour of HD video a day can use up to about 90 GB a month. Video, not chat, decides which plan you need. More on this in Which Apps Use the Most Mobile Data?.
What real phones use
Dataly users can choose to share an anonymous weekly summary of their usage. Across 56 phones in the last 30 days (to 10 November 2026), the average was about 590 MB of mobile data a day and about 1.7 GB on Wi-Fi. That is a small group from several countries, not a survey of Nigeria, but it shows how much usage moves to Wi-Fi when people have it.
Nigerians are using more data than ever: MTN Nigeria alone reported 57.2 million active data users in the third quarter of 2026, up 12% in a year.
How to pick your plan
- Measure one normal week first. Multiply by 4 and add 20% for the bad weeks.
- Turn your plan into a daily number. 10 GB is about 330 MB a day. See How to Make Your Data Last the Whole Month.
- Move video to Wi-Fi. Download shows and playlists at home or work.
- Check the night plans. If your network sells cheap night data, schedule big downloads and updates for then.
Summary
- Most people need 3 to 20 GB a month; video decides where you land.
- Dataly report phones averaged about 590 MB of mobile data a day (about 18 GB a month).
- Measure one normal week, multiply by 4, add 20%.
- Turn the plan into a daily number and set it as a limit.