When it comes to streaming IPTV and other online streaming platforms such as Netflix you may have always had a question in the back of your mind wondering just how much data does IPTV use.
This can be important to know especially if you sometimes choose to stream IPTV on your smartphone when you are out and about and have a data cap or allowance with your mobile data provider.
How Much Data (Bandwidth) Is Used for Streaming IPTV
On average the bandwidth IPTV uses is 5GB (5 Gigabytes) per hour but this can also depend on the quality of the IPTV stream you are watching if it’s in SD, HD, or 4K.
Now the above is an average this number will quickly increase if you are watching 4K streams to 16GB (16 Gigabytes) per hour which is a 3-fold increase from HD IPTV streaming which uses only 5GB per hour.
Table Of Data Consumed Per Hour By IPTV
| IPTV Stream Resolution | Data Used Per Hour | Minimum Internet Speed Nedded |
|---|---|---|
| SD | 500MB | 3Mbps |
| 720p | 1GB | 5Mbps |
| 1080p | 3GB | 10Mbps |
| 4K | 7GB | 16Mbps |
What Broadband Speeusuaged Do I Need To Watch IPTV
If you are looking to have no freezing and stuttering on your end, so not created by your own internet speeds then for HD streams you will want an internet download speed of around 5Mbps but ideally above 10Mbps is a much safer bet as this will allow you to run other devices on your home network at the same time such as game consoles and smart TVs.
If your IPTV stream is HD at 1920x720p expect to need a 5Mbps broadband speed with 1920x1080p streams needing 10Mbps ideally to playback IPTV streams without freezes and buffering.
When watching a 4K IPTV stream from your IPTV provider the speed needed from your home internet will have to be a minimum of 20Mbps to make sure you do not get any freezing and buffering and this allows a small overhead for other devices to stream on your home network.
See more about What Internet Speed Is Needed For IPTV.
How Much Data Is Used Per Hour By Other Internet Activities
We have put together a table below so you can see how much data is consumed by other activities you do with your laptop/PC, Smart TV, Firestick, or other devices so you can compare it to the data usage of IPTV.
| Activity | Data Used |
|---|---|
| Listening To Music | 320kbps – 144MB Per Hour |
| Watching Netflix | HD – 3GB Per Hour |
| Watching YouTube | 1080 – 1.56GB Per Hour |
| Using Facetime | Facetime – 180MB Per Hour |
| Browsing Social Media | Interacting – 156MB Per Hour |
| Browsing The Web | 60MB Per Hour |
Now the above shows you how much data is used per hour let’s see a table below of how long 5GB of data will last you for the above activities.
| Activity | Data Used |
|---|---|
| Listening to music | 34 Hours |
| Watching Netflix | 1.6 Hours |
| Watching Youtube | 3.2 Hours |
| Using Facetime | 27 Hours |
| Browsing Social Media | 32 Hours |
| Browsing The Web | 83 Hours |
IS IPTV A Good Idea To Use With Mobile Data Plans
Depending on which mobile data plan you have with your phone carrier this can be a bad idea overall due to how much data watching IPTV can use up in just 1 hour.
For example, if you had a 30GB plan from your phone carrier provider and you decide to watch IPTV on an HD stream which just at 720p uses 5GB per hour then in 6 hours your data would be used up and you would have to buy additional mobile data or wait for your allowance to reset.
So going off the above figures it doesn’t make sense to even bother watching 1080p and 4k streams using your smartphone.
There can be times when using your smartphone 3G/4G or 5G makes sense to watch IPTV and this is when you are outside your home or anywhere with Wifi access and you want to watch your favorite football team or sports event than using just 1-2 hours of IPTV is not the end of the world and will leave you with data depending how much data you have to use each month.
See Why Your IPTV Is Freeing And Buffering.
Also worth noting is when using say 3G/4G you may struggle to play streams that are in 1080p or 4K due to your network strength the area you are in and the processing speed of your smartphone.
5G has a fast enough speed to play up to 4K smoothly without many issues but you would need a smartphone capable of showing 4K resolution or a smartphone capable of screen sharing with another 4K device and have the heavy processing power to do this in real-time.
So if you have access to Wifi it’s always better to go down the home broadband route than to try and watch IPTV for long periods using just mobile data.
See How To Run A Network Speedtest On A Amazon Firestick Or Amazon Fire TV.
Final Thoughts
We have made a comprehensive guide on exactly how much data IPTV uses and how much data the different IPTV stream resolutions can consume per hour so you can be sure you do not burn through any data allowances and also be knowledgeable on the internet speeds needed to playback the IPTV streams without any issues.
