How To Limit Streaming Data Usage On Netflix

Netflix is a cloud based entertainment service that provides a great way to stream your favorite movies and TV shows. It gives you unlimited access to watch your favorite shows without having to watch a single commercial. With Netflix, you stream high-quality media content over your home WiFi network. So if you want to take the full leverage of this high-end entertainment service, having just a high-speed internet connection will not suffice. You must also have an unlimited data plan or at least several hundred GBs of data cap to enjoy the seamless streaming service from Netflix. Although it very much depends on how much content you stream every month, it is still recommended to have sufficient data cap if you are using Netflix.

However, if you have a limited data cap, you can still reduce the data usage of your Netflix account to save your data. In this blog, we’ll tell you about different ways to restrain your data usage on Netflix.

Data Consumptions On Netflix

The data usage on Netflix very much depends on the three factors:

• The content you are streaming
• For how long you are streaming
• The quality of streaming media content and
• The speed of your internet connection

Netflix automatically adjusts the quality of streaming media content based on your internet connection speed. And clearly, the higher the quality, more will be the data consumption.

The average data consumption depending on the internet speed is given below:

• For low quality streaming (360p): 0.3 GB data per hour.
• For Medium quality streaming (480-720p): 0.7 GB per hour.
• For High Definition streaming (720-1080p): 3 GB per hour.
• For Ultra HD streaming (1280p-2160p): 7 GB data per hour.

Also read Video Streaming Is Not Just About Entertainment.

How To Adjust Playback Settings On Netflix?

There are several ways to limit the data usage of your internet connection on Netflix. The best thing you can do is set the streaming media quality from Auto to Standard at which it will consume up to 0.7 GB data per hour. You can do that by following these simple steps.

• Log in to your Netflix account through a web browser.
• Choose your Netflix profile for which you want to adjust the playback settings. In case you have multiple profiles on Netflix, you can set one profile to stream in HD and others in SD.
• After selecting a profile, go to Account Settings.
• Scroll to the bottom and select Playback Settings under My Profile.
• The Playback Settings on Netflix are by default set to Auto. Select Medium for setting the standard video quality (0.7 GB per hour) and click on Save.
• Similarly, you can change the playback settings for your other profiles as well.

Note that it may take several hours for the changes to be activated. By setting your profile to Medium, you can save up to 8 GB of your data usage every hour.