How much data do you actually need abroad?
Every trip, someone asks me the same question at the airport: "how many gigabytes should I buy?" And every trip, I watch people answer it the same wrong way — they pick the biggest plan, because it feels safer, and they come home having used a third of it.
The honest answer is that most travellers need far less than they think, and the reason is simple: on holiday you look at your phone less, and the things you actually do with it are cheap. Here's how to work out your own number in two minutes, instead of guessing.
What a normal travel day really costs
Data is spent by what you watch, not by what you check. Maps and navigation, the thing you use most abroad, cost about 0.4 GB a day even with heavy walking around a new city. Messaging and social media, scrolling included, sit around 0.6 GB. Sending photos to family — the real ones, full size — adds roughly 0.5 GB. Streaming video is the outlier: about 1.2 GB a day, and it will quietly eat a plan on its own.
« Ten gigabytes covers ten days of ordinary travel. Most people buy thirty and use eight. »
Add the ordinary ones together and a normal day lands between 0.5 and 1 GB. That is why ten gigabytes covers ten days for the vast majority of trips: maps in the morning, messages through the day, a batch of photos in the evening. It is only when video enters the picture — a series on a long bus ride, a video call home every night — that the number climbs.
Three profiles, three answers
If you travel light on your phone — maps, messages, the occasional search, photos uploaded on hotel wifi — count 0.5 GB a day. A week is 3 to 5 GB, and a fortnight rarely passes 10.
If you use your phone the way you do at home — social media through the day, music, a few video calls — count 1 GB a day. Ten days is 10 GB, three weeks is around 20.
If you work as you travel, or you watch video on long journeys, count 2 GB a day and take an unlimited daily plan instead. Not because you'll use it all, but because the mental arithmetic stops being worth your attention.
The two mistakes that cost real money
The first is buying for your worst day instead of your average one. There will be one afternoon with a two-hour video call and a film downloaded in a station. Buying thirty gigabytes to cover that single afternoon means paying for twenty you'll never open.
The second is forgetting that wifi still exists. Hotels, cafés, airports and most guesthouses will carry your heavy work — photo backups, app updates, the film for the bus. Save those for wifi, and your mobile data goes twice as far.
How to stop guessing
Your phone already knows the answer. On iPhone, Settings then Mobile Data shows your usage for the current period; on Android, Settings then Network then Data usage. Look at a normal week at home, divide by seven, and take about two-thirds of it — because abroad you are outside more, on wifi more, and on your phone less than you think.
📶 Léa's tip
If you genuinely can't tell, take the daily unlimited plan for the first trip and look at what you actually consumed. You'll know your real number for every trip afterwards. Estimate yours in thirty seconds with the data calculator, then pick your plan on the destinations page.
What to remember
A normal travel day costs between half a gigabyte and one. Ten gigabytes covers ten days for most people. Video is the only thing that changes the maths, and hotel wifi is the friend that makes your plan last. Buy for your average day, not for your worst one — and check your real usage once, so you never have to guess again.
— Léa, who bought 50 GB for two weeks in Portugal and came home having used nine.
