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Worried about how much data those constant Zoom meetings and catch-ups are using? Here's an easy way to calculate your video conferencing data consumption.
How much data does Zoom use per hour?
The amount of data Zoom uses depends on how many people are in the call and the video quality you're using. Keep in mind that 1080p video settings are only available to users with an Enterprise licence.
1:1 meeting
For a 1:1 Zoom meeting, you'll spend somewhere between 540MB and 1.62GB per hour (9MB to 27MB per minute), depending on the quality of your video being streamed.
Video quality
Download
Upload
Total data usage
High
270MB/hr
270MB/hr
540MB/hr
720p
540MB/hr
540MB/hr
1.08GB/hr
1080p
810MB/hr
810MB/hr
1.62GB/hr
Group meeting
For a group Zoom meeting, you'll spend somewhere between 810MB and 2.4GB per hour (13.5MB to 40MB per minute), depending on the quality of your video being streamed. Even on lower video settings, your data use will increase the more people are taking part in the meeting.
Video quality
Download
Upload
Total data usage
High
450MB/hr
360MB/hr
810MB/hr
720p
675MB/hr
675MB/hr
1.35GB/hr
1080p
1.2GB/hr
1.2GB/hr
2.4GB/hr
As a point of reference, you'd use about 1GB an hour if you streamed Netflix on standard quality or 3GB an hour if you're streaming in HD. If you're in a 1:1 meeting, you'd definitely use less data over an hour on Zoom, but your data usage can easily spike when you're in a group Zoom.
Downloads are when you pull data from the Internet. In the case of a Zoom call, download data is all the video and audio from other people's computers that you're receiving. Uploads are when you share information to the Internet. For a Zoom call, that's you sending your audio and video to other members of the group call.
Tips to reduce your Zoom data usage
Turn off your camera. Sending pure audio uses about a 10th of the data that having your video on uses. Keeping your camera off will cut your total data usage by around 40%.
Reduce your video quality. Lower video quality means lower data usage. You can lower the quality of your video on desktop in the Video Settings section of your account. Untick "HD Video" if it's selected. On a mobile, your stream quality is decided automatically and you can't change it.
Is your internet unreliable?
23% of people rarely get buffering, according to our consumer sentiment tracker (November 2023). NSW users experience the highest number of daily issues (17%) compared to South Australia and Tasmania (14%).
What type of Internet is best for Zoom?
The Internet connection you'll need for a smooth Zoom experience will depend on how often you use it and how many people are online at the same time. If you have two or more people in the house working from home simultaneously, you'll likely want an NBN50 plan for a good connection.
If you're on mobile data, your Zoom connection and quality will be reduced to match your connection type. Overall, it should use less data than on a desktop, although mobile data caps tend to be much lower than home Internet plans. Watch out for excessive data consumption, especially in group calls.
Compare NBN plans for working from home below
Luckily, most NBN plans come with unlimited data so if you're not already on an unlimited plan, check out the range below.
We update our data regularly, but information can change between updates. Confirm details with the provider you're interested in before making a decision.
Sam Baran is a writer for Finder, covering topics across the tech, telco and utilities sectors. They enjoy decrypting technical jargon and helping people compare complex products easily. When they aren't writing, you'll find Sam's head buried in a book or working on their latest short story. Sam has a Bachelor of Advanced Science from the University of Sydney.
NBN wholesaler nbnco offers four NBN speed tiers to ISPs, which dictates how fast your Internet connection will be, and here's how to choose the best plan.
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