What can you do with 100GB of data?

Thanks to our big summer boost, you can enjoy extra data and extra savings. For example, a 75GB Data Pack normally costs £15, but with Auto-renew, we’ll boost your data to 100GB, and you’ll only pay £13.50.

But how much is 100GB of data? How does it stack up in terms of the number of songs you can listen to, films you can stream, video calls you can make and mobile games you can play?

From spamming mates with beach selfies to booking days out, we’ve all got our favourite things we like to do with our devices at this time of year. But it’s easy to waste data, so we thought we’d take a closer look at what 100GB of data actually gets you.

The smallest hint of sun requires music. It’s the law. And something worth remembering if you’re throwing a barbeque or heading out for a run.

Whether you use Spotify, Apple Music or any other music streaming service, streaming sounds at the standard quality uses around 25-33MB per hour, allowing you to enjoy 20-30 hours of music per GB of data.

So, if you’ve got 100GB of data, that’s more hours of music than even the most dedicated listener could fit into a month. But before we get carried away and leave our playlist on 24/7, one thing to keep in mind is that if you choose some of the higher quality audio options such as HD, 4K or Dolby Atmos, this will use data at a much higher rate, usually between 5-10 times as much as at standard quality.

One tip to minimise your data usage is to listen to your music offline. Many subscription services allow you to download a certain number of songs. So, you could download a playlist of some of your favourite artists while connected to Wi-Fi, then enjoy them offline and keep data usage down.

While 100GB is more than enough to cover your music listening needs, how does it measure up in terms of film and TV streaming?

When it comes to measuring data use for watching movies and TV shows, we can use Netflix as an example. According to their own figures, usage levels depend on the quality of the content:

- Standard definition: up to 1GB per hour
- High definition: up to 3GB per hour
- Ultra-high definition (4K): up to 7GB per hour

These numbers suggest that your 100GB would allow you to stream around 100 hours of video in SD, 33 hours in HD, or 14 hours in 4K.

As with the music platforms, many streaming services will let you download a certain number of films and TV shows for offline viewing via their subscriber apps. So, given the data demands, it makes even more sense to download some of your future viewing choices while connected to Wi-Fi to help preserve your data.

It’s good to know where you stand with video calls too, especially if you’re travelling and want to keep in touch with family and friends.

Data usage can vary depending on whether you’re using WhatsApp, Teams, Zoom, or another video calling platform. But in general, video calling uses around 500MB per hour in standard definition, and 1.5GB per hour in HD.

With that information in mind, 100GB data could get you anywhere between 60 and 200 hours of video calling.

Finally, how long does 100GB last for the gamers?

Whether you’re playing a new mobile game every week, or you’re a Candy Crush devotee, it’s good to know how much data your favourite games use up.

The good news? Mobile games normally come in at the lower side of data usage, with estimates ranging from 10-20MB per hour for the average mobile game. This means that even if you played a couple of hours a day, you’d only be in the region of 1-2GB data usage per month.

However, if you’re using your data to enjoy online gaming on a platform such as PlayStation Network, Steam or Xbox Live, data usage rates will be a lot higher than a mobile app game. Microsoft suggests that playing online games for an hour a day consumes 3-12GB of data per month, while playing for several hours a day uses anywhere from 10-50GB per month.

Also, be careful that you’re not downloading game-based updates using your data, as these can be several GBs per update.

Now that you’ve seen exactly what 100GB can do, why not explore our range of Pay As You Go SIM deals? You may want to double up to 200GB, or even go unlimited. With Auto-renew, you can get 200GB for £18 and unlimited data for £31.50. Whichever option you choose, we’ve got a Pay As You Go data deal to suit you.