How Much Mobile Data Do You Need When Traveling?

Most trips need far less data than your home plan suggests. Maps, messaging and email are light. Video calls and streaming are what use gigabytes. As a rough guide, our estimate is about 1 GB for a weekend city break, about 5 GB for two weeks of backpacking, and about 20 GB for a month of remote work.

The rest of this guide shows where those numbers come from, so you can swap in your own habits. Everything below is arithmetic on rates published by Netflix and bandwidth figures recommended by Zoom. The trip totals are NomadSIM's own estimate, not a measurement.

If you only need data for a day or two, check eSIM vs local SIM too. A carrier day pass can be fine for a short stop.

Only as a ceiling for context. The Ericsson Mobility Report (June 2026) says the average smartphone used 22 GB of mobile data per month worldwide at the end of 2025. By region, that was 15 GB in Latin America and 25 GB in North America and Western Europe. Ericsson is a network equipment maker that publishes yearly traffic forecasts.

Those are home-market averages across all subscribers. They are not a tourist's usage abroad, and most travelers use less because they lean on hotel, cafe and coworking Wi-Fi.

So treat 15 to 25 GB per month as "what a heavy everyday user burns", not as a target. For a trip, build the number from what you will actually do.

These are the rates we can back with a source. The Netflix figures are Netflix's own; the Zoom figures are the bandwidth Zoom recommends, not measured usage, so treat them as an upper-ish estimate; the per-hour conversions are simple arithmetic (kbps x 3600 / 8 / 1000 = MB per hour).

Google Maps and WhatsApp do not publish an official per-hour figure, so we do not quote one. In practice both are small next to video. The Maps help page explains how offline maps cut navigation data to nothing (see the tips below).

A single hour of HD Netflix can use up to 3 GB, according to Netflix. The same hour on the phone's Save Data setting is about 0.17 GB. That is a gap of roughly 18 times for the same hour of watching.

Video calls sit in the middle. One hour of a high-quality 1:1 Zoom call is about 270 MB by our arithmetic from Zoom's recommended 600 kbps. Switch to 720p and it doubles. Group calls and screen sharing change the rate, so if you are on camera all day, expect to land above the numbers here.

Audio calls are tiny by comparison, at roughly a tenth of the video call rate. If a call does not need your face, turning the camera off is the cheapest data saving there is.

Here is NomadSIM's estimate for three common trip profiles. Every line uses the rates above. We then add 50% headroom for what we cannot measure well: maps, messaging, photo uploads, ride and food apps, and the odd app update. Then we round up.

These assume you use hotel or cafe Wi-Fi for anything heavy when it is available. If you stream HD on cellular, or tether a laptop, multiply the streaming part by up to 18 using the rates in the table above.

A few habits cut usage a lot, and none of them cost you anything. Start with the ones that save the most.

• Download offline maps before you leave Wi-Fi. Google Maps lets you navigate with no data if the whole route is inside the downloaded area. Offline you lose traffic and alternate routes, and walking, cycling and transit directions are not available (Google Maps Help).
• Save streaming for Wi-Fi. Download shows and playlists at the hotel. If you must stream on cellular, use the Save Data setting instead of HD.
• Back up photos on Wi-Fi only. Turn off cellular upload for your photo and cloud backup apps so a night of photos does not sync over mobile data.
• Turn off automatic app updates on cellular. On both iPhone and Android you can limit updates and iCloud or Google Drive sync to Wi-Fi.
• Turn the camera off when a call does not need it. Audio calls use roughly a tenth of the data of video.

Most phones also show per-app cellular usage in settings. Check it after your first day and you will know your real number.

Take your estimate and pick the next plan size up. Running out mid-trip costs more in stress than a slightly larger plan costs in money. Per-GB cost usually drops as plans get bigger, so a bigger plan can be the better deal even if you will not use all of it.

Browse the plans for your country on our eSIM page. Our price per GB guide shows how per-GB cost changes with plan size, so you can compare sizes on the same footing.

Check that your phone supports eSIM first with our compatibility list. Then follow how to install an eSIM. If something does not connect, see eSIM not working or chat with us.

Not every traveler fits a fixed-GB eSIM. If you work on video calls all day, tether a laptop, or stay in one country for several months, 20 GB a month is a realistic baseline and it can climb well past that.

In those cases a local SIM can be cheaper per GB, and some travelers prefer an unlimited plan. Unlimited plans often slow your speed after a daily amount, so read the fine print before you rely on them for a hotspot.

Our eSIM vs local SIM comparison goes through the trade-offs, including paperwork for local SIMs. For one or two days of travel, a carrier day pass can also be simpler than buying anything new.