How Much Data Does Spotify Use When Streaming
How much data does Spotify use? It depends on the sound quality you choose. This article explains how much data the Spotify app uses when...
Author:Daniel BarrettJun 26, 202250.2K Shares1.2M Views
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 and probably less than most people think.
You could rack up more data usage than you expect. That’s especially true if you’re streaming higher-quality audio tracks and podcasts. Spotify offers five different sound quality settings in the app that govern how much data Spotify uses.
Spotify Sound Quality Settings
You can access these options by navigating to the Spotify app ‘Settings‘ and scrolling down to ‘Music Quality.’ There are five different settings to choose from, including:
- Low: 24 kbps
- Normal: 96 kbps
- High: 160 kbps
- Very High: 320 kbps
- Automatic
The automatic option will choose a sound quality option based on your network connection. You can download high-quality music to your device to avoid massive data charges.
How to Change the Audio Quality on the Spotify App
- Open the Spotify app and sign in if you haven’t.
- Tap on the Gear icon.
- Scroll down to the Audio Quality section.
- Here, you’ll be able to set audio quality settings for different situations. These include Wi-Fi streaming, Cellular streaming, and Download.
- Tap on the drop-down menus next to each section and make your selections.
How Much Data Does Spotify Use?
Let’s break this down by sound quality tier to see how much data Spotify uses based on sound quality. The app uses anywhere from 0.5 MB up to 8 MB for a song.
A full hour of streaming music can use upwards of 150 MB of data. That means a single hour of streaming per day can add up to over 6 GB of data usage just for streaming music.
Low (24kbps)
- Per Minute: 0.18 MB
- Per Hour: 10.8 MB
- Streaming Hours to Reach 1 GB: 92.5 hours
Normal (96kbps)
- Per Minute: 0.72 MB
- Per Hour: 43.2 MB
- Streaming Hours to Reach 1 GB: 23.1 hours
High (160kbps)
- Per Minute: 1.2 MB
- Per Hour: 72 MB
- Streaming Hours to Reach 1 GB: 13.8 hours
Very High (320kbps) – Spotify Premium Only
- Per Minute: 2.4 MB
- Per Hour: 144 MB
- Streaming Hours to Reach 1 GB: 6.9 hours
Editor’s picks:
Daniel Barrett
Author
Daniel Barrett is a tech writer focusing on IoT, gadgets, software, and cryptocurrencies. With a keen interest in emerging technologies, Daniel offers expert analysis and commentary on industry trends. Follow him for authoritative insights into the latest tech innovations.
Latest Articles
Popular Articles