How Much Data Does Spotify Use?

Spotify uses approximately 3.42MB, or 0.00342GB, per hour when streaming audio with the app’s default setting. Watching videos on Spotify uses significantly more data, with the standard settings using 224MB per hour.

These numbers might seem unimportant, but they matter a great deal when you’re considering the kind of cell phone plan you need. Analyzing your Spotify data usage—along with the rest of your monthly data consumption—will help you make an informed decision about how much monthly mobile data you actually need.

In this guide, we’ll explain everything you need to know about Spotify data usage, including the data used by each Spotify setting, how to track your Spotify data consumption, and how to save data when listening and watching content in the app.

Spotify Data Usage

How much data Spotify uses depends on the settings on your app and how much time you spend using it. Spotify five Audio Quality settings, which use different amounts of cellular data while streaming music, podcasts, audiobooks, and any other audio content on the app. I wanted to find out how much data each of these settings use, so I decided to run some tests.

I chose a ~30 minute album, 22° Halo’s Lily of the Valley, and played it on each Audio Quality setting to see how much data each setting uses.Once the album was over, I went back to check my Spotify data usage. 

Keep in mind that this data is simply for playing the music–searching for content and saving it to playlists or to offline uses data, too, and will add to your own data usage numbers if you do them while listening. 

Spotify Automatic quality mode

Automatic is the default Audio Quality setting on Spotify, offering the best audio quality possible based on the strength of your cellular connection. If you’re in an area with solid service, it will provide audio akin to the Normal or High Audio Quality settings. If you’re in an area with bad service, it will lower the quality of the stream, with quality similar to the Low setting, so it doesn’t burn through too much data or cause your audio to constantly buffer.

I tested the Automatic setting when I was in an area with two bars of Verizon’s 5G service. After listening to the 30-minute 22° Halo album, Spotify had used 1.71MB, or 0.00171GB. If you were to listen to Spotify at this setting for an hour every day for a month, you’d use approximately 0.1GB of data. 

If you’ve never changed your Spotify Audio Quality settings, then Automatic is already turned on. If you recently changed to another setting, or if you’d like to make sure it’s turned on, you can do so by following these steps:Open the Spotify app.

1. Open the Spotify app.
2. Tap Home in the bottom left corner.
3. Tap the username icon in the upper left corner. (It's the circle with the first letter of your username.)

4. Tap Settings and privacy.

5. Tap Audio Quality.
6. Scroll down to Cellular data and tap Automatic.

Spotify Low quality mode

The Low setting is, as its name suggests, the lowest Audio Quality setting on Spotify. Casual fans might not spot a difference in sound quality, though audiophiles and even more particular music fans will notice an inferior output. That’s because this setting uses very little data to process the sound, offering a low quality product that won’t obliterate your monthly data.

My testing found that Spotify’s Low setting used 1.57MB, or 0.00157GB, for 30 minutes of music. If you were to listen to Spotify at this setting for an hour every day for a month, you’d use approximately 0.09GB of data. That’s a very small amount, especially considering most cell phone plans offer at least 10GB of premium data. Even cheap capped plans, like the AT&T 4GB plan, offer four times that amount. 

If you want to switch on the Low Audio Quality setting on Spotify, here’s how:

1. Open the Spotify app.
2. Tap Home in the bottom left corner.
3. Tap the username icon in the upper left corner. (It’s the circle with the first letter of your username.)
4. Tap Settings and privacy.
5. Tap Audio Quality.
6. Scroll down to Cellular data and tap Low. 

Spotify Normal quality mode

The Normal setting is Spotify’s mid-range audio setting. As the name suggests, it offers listeners a normal quality sound experience. For most listeners, this won’t sound any different from higher quality settings or from other audio they’re familiar with, like iTunes mp3s and CDs. 

Strangely, my testing consistently found that Spotify’s Normal setting used 4.26MB, or 0.00426GB, for 30 minutes of music. If you were to listen to Spotify at this setting for an hour every day for a month, you’d use approximately 0.26GB of data.

If you want to switch on the Normal Audio Quality setting on Spotify, here’s how:

1. Open the Spotify app.
2. Tap Home in the bottom left corner.
3. Tap the username icon in the upper left corner. (It’s the circle with the first letter of your username.)
4. Tap Settings and privacy.
5. Tap Audio Quality.
6. Scroll down to Cellular data and tap Normal.

Spotify High quality mode

The High setting is slightly superior to the Normal setting, but most users won’t notice the difference. It’s not recommended for more casual listeners, though it’s a good option for audiophiles who want high quality sound but still want to conserve some data.

My testing found that the High setting uses 34.4MB, or about 0.0344GB, for 30 minutes of music. That’s rather small for a higher-end sound setting, though the numbers do add up over time. If you were to listen to an hour of music every day for a month with the High setting turned on, you’d use approximately 2GB.

If you want to switch on the Normal Audio Quality setting on Spotify, here’s how:

1. Open the Spotify app.
2. Tap Home in the bottom left corner.
3. Tap the username icon in the upper left corner. (It’s the circle with the first letter of your username.)
4. Tap Settings and privacy.
5. Tap Audio Quality.‍
6. Scroll down to Cellular data and tap High.

Spotify Very high quality mode

The Very high setting is the highest Audio Quality setting on the Spotify app and is only available to Spotify Premium subscribers. Typical listeners might recognize the sound if they listen on headphones, but, for the most part, this is a setting that will most likely only be appreciated by audiophiles and music lovers. 

My testing found that the Very high setting used 67.9MB for 30 minutes of music or a little under 0.07GB. That’s significantly more than the High setting, which speaks to the superior audio quality. (After all, this is Spotify’s highest Audio Quality setting, at least until they release their long rumored Spotify HIFi lossless audio option.) If you were to listen to Spotify at this setting for an hour every day for a month, you’d use approximately 4.1GB of data.

That’s a significant amount of data for a typically low-data activity, but it’s not surprising: this setting, after all, is designed for people willing to devote their cellular data to better sounding audio.

If you want to switch on the Very high Audio Quality setting on Spotify, here’s how:

1. Open the Spotify app.
2. Tap Home in the bottom left corner.
3. Tap the username icon in the upper left corner. (It’s the circle with the first letter of your username.)
4. Tap Settings and privacy.
5. Tap Audio Quality.
6. Scroll down to Cellular data and tap Very high. 

Spotify Video: quality settings

Watching videos on Spotify is more data intensive than listening to audio. Keep in mind, too, that “video” on Spotify isn’t just video podcasts—it also includes canvases, which are the moving visuals that often accompany songs and albums and provide previews of content on your Home page. These can eat up data, even if it only feels like you’re listening to music.

Spotify provides most of the same data-use levels for Video Quality, though there’s no Normal or Automatic settings. In their place is the Medium setting, which provides a mid-range picture quality that uses more data than the Low setting but less than the High or Very high settings. If you’re looking to learn how to change Spotify video quality, you can follow the same steps for audio quality, just applying them to the Video Quality settings.

I decided to test out the Medium Video Quality setting to get an idea of how much data videos on Spotify use. I watched 30 minutes of a video podcast called I’ve Been Meaning to Listen to That! and then checked my data usage: the video used 112MB of data, or 0.112GB. If you were to watch a similar video on Spotify at this setting for an hour every day for a month, you’d use approximately 6.7GB of data.

How To Check Your Spotify Data Usage

If you want to see an exact picture of your Spotify mobile data usage, you can find it in just a few quick steps. Here’s how.

Check Spotify data usage on iPhone

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Cellular.
3. Scroll down to Spotify. The data used in that period will be under the app’s name.

Check Spotify data usage on Android

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Network & internet.
3. Tap Mobile network.
4. Tap App data usage.
5. Scroll to find the Spotify app.

How To Limit Your Spotify Data Consumption

If you’re concerned about your Spotify data usage, there are some simple steps that can help cut down the data the app uses. The first is turning on Data Saver mode, which will set the audio quality to Low and hide the videos that appear with audio content. (To switch on Data Saver, go to Home > Account > Settings and privacy > Data Saver.)

We also recommend closing out of the app whenever you’re not actively using it. Spotify will use data even when you’re not playing any audio or video, leading to a higher data usage number at the end of the month. Making sure it’s closed any time it’s not in use will help minimize your overall data consumption.

Likewise, you should try to limit your streaming to Wi-Fi, which doesn’t use any of your cellular data. If you save songs, albums, playlists, and podcasts to offline mode while on Wi-Fi, you can listen to your favorite content on the go without sacrificing any data.

The final step you can take is signing up for an unlimited data plan, like the ones offered by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. This isn’t really a way to cut down on your data use; instead, it’s a way to ensure you’ll always have enough data for all your Spotify needs. 

The Bottom Line

How much data Spotify will use depends on your usage habits, including how long you use the app and what settings you’ve turned on or off. Based on our Spotify data testing, we found that:

• The Automatic Audio Quality setting will use approximately 3.42MB, or 0.00342GB, per hour.  
• The Low Audio Quality setting will use approximately 3.14MB, or 0.00314GB, per hour.
• The Normal Audio Quality setting will use approximately MB, or GB, per hour.
• The High Audio Quality setting will use approximately 4.12MB, or 0.00412GB, per hour.
• The Very high Audio Quality setting will use approximately 135.8MB, or 0.1358GB, per hour.

We recommend setting your Spotify app to Data saver mode, saving content to your phone by downloading it to offline mode, and reserving most of your streaming for Wi-Fi, which will help cut down on your monthly data usage.

Now that you know how much data Spotify uses and how to check your own data usage, it might be time to find a new phone plan that better meets your data needs. That's where Navi's free unbiased Plan Finder below can help.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does using Spotify use a lot of data?

No, Spotify doesn’t use a lot of data if you use its mid-range and low data settings, which our testing found use 3.14MB–3.42MB per hour. If you use the app’s higher Audio Quality settings you will use a more, somewhere between 68MB and 135MB.

How many GB is one hour of music on Spotify?

One hour of music on Spotify, using the app’s default Automatic Audio Quality setting, burns through approximately 1.71MB, or 0.00171GB, of data per hour.

Why does Spotify consume so much data?

Spotify can consume a lot of data when its Audio Quality and Video Quality are at their highest settings, which require more data to deliver the highest quality content. If you’d like to reduce how much data Spotify consumes, you can do so by opening the app, tapping Home in the bottom left corner, tapping the username icon in the upper left corner, tapping Settings and privacy, then configuring the Audio Quality and Video Quality.‍