If your internet plan, whether from a mobile carrier or another ISP, has a 40 GB per month cap, you won’t have enough to stream Netflix heavily each day. When you open an app on your phone, if it has a video, like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, a news site, or a streaming app like Netflix, you are using more data than reading or surfing online. The same applies when you navigate to a website (like opening Facebook on your laptop) or stream on your smart TV. Data is the currency. This is why unlimited data at speeds that will support streaming is desirable.

Netflix asserts that streaming TV shows and movies in Standard Definition (SD) uses about 1 GB of data per hour. Think you are an average user and could get by on 40 GB per month? Depending on the source, the average American spends 3 - 8 hours a day streaming with about 51% of that from subscription services like Netflix. So, if you stream just 3 hours per day, with 1.5 hours of that from Netflix, like the average user, you’d use up your 40 GB allocation in 26 days. Further, you would have to watch it all in SD. And not check email, surf the web or use social media.

Most people want to stream at least some of their content in HD or better. That uses more data. Streaming videos in High Definition (HD), which may be a default setting you’ll need to manually change in your settings, uses three times the amount of data as SD so you’ll use up to 3 GB per hour streaming in HD and you will use more than double that amount, 7 GB per hour, streaming in 4K Ultra HD. A 40 GB allocation goes quickly if you use HD or above. If you are very strategic in how you watch content you could get by but it would take planning and discipline.