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How to Manage Your Home Internet Plan's Data Cap Without Paying More

Are you trying to keep your monthly bill as low as possible? Here are some tips to keep data usage down and avoid pesky overage fees.

Trey Paul Senior Editor
Trey Paul is a CNET senior editor covering broadband. His 20+ years of experience as a writer and editor include time at CNET's sister site, Allconnect, and working with clients like Yahoo!, Google, The New York Times and Choice Hotels. An avid movie fan, Trey's career also includes being a film and TV critic while pursuing a degree in New York.
Expertise Home internet and broadband, including plans, providers, internet speeds and connection types. Movies and film studies. Credentials
  • Master's degree in Cinema Studies from NYU and interviews with Conan O'Brien, Stan Lee and some of his biggest Star Trek childhood idols
Trey Paul
8 min read
Woman screaming in front of her computer, clearly frustrated

Data caps can make you want to scream, but there are ways to effectively live with them.

Jozef Polc/Getty Images

According to recent data from Statista, approximately 78% of US consumers use at least one streaming service, up by more than 25% in the last five years. Add to that some recent findings in an OpenVault report from the first quarter of 2022 that the average American household now has approximately 25 connected devices. What does this all mean? It means we're using more and more broadband data every month.

Deloitte Insights graphic showing that the percentage of people with a streaming subscription has risen across all demographics.
Enlarge Image
Deloitte Insights graphic showing that the percentage of people with a streaming subscription has risen across all demographics.

The percentage of people subscribing to a streaming media service has seen a predictable uptick since the pandemic.

Deloitte Insights

That's all well and good, but several internet providers, including prominent names such as AT&T, Cox, Mediacom and Xfinity, enforce data caps with at least some of their plans. If you're living with a plan like that, you'll need to ration your internet data consumption each month. Browse, stream or download too much, and you'll risk overage charges on your next bill. With some plans, breaking the cap means your connection will get throttled to a snail's pace for the remainder of the month.

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I don't mean to launch into a diatribe against data caps (that's a whole other article), but the hard truth is that many of us have no choice but to live with them. If that's the case for you, you'll need a good strategy for managing that data cap. Here are some basic steps to get you off to the right start.

Locating local internet providers

First things first: What are data caps?

Let's start at the beginning. Data caps are limits -- set by your internet service provider -- on your monthly internet usage. The idea is that there's a limited amount of bandwidth on the provider's network, so the data cap is meant to ensure that no one customer or subscriber takes up more than their fair share of that bandwidth.

The gauge for measuring that data usage is bytes. Whereas bits measure the speed of the data as it's transferred -- 200 megabits per second, for example -- bytes measure the data's size (1 byte is 8 bits). Information is tracked in ascending order of kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes and terabytes. When abbreviated, bits take a small b and bytes a capital B, so you'll see 1Mbps (1 megabit per second) but 1MB (1 megabyte).

Locating local internet providers

The lower the data cap, the less you'll be able to do on the internet before your ISP begins to either throttle your service (which means slowing down the speed of your internet connection) or charge you extra fees for exceeding your data limit. In some cases, it might even do both.

Why am I going over the basics? Because one of the best ways to handle a data cap on your home internet plan is to understand it better.

Which providers enforce a data cap?

Here at CNET, we've reviewed every ISP with internet service available to at least 10 million people in the US. Among them, here are the providers that enforce a data cap:

ProviderData cap
AT&T
Read full review
350GB for fixed wireless, 1TB for DSL plans, unlimited for fiber
Cox
Read full review
1.28TB
HughesNet
Read full review
15-100GB
Mediacom 200GB-6TB
Rise Broadband
Read full review
250GB on some plans, unlimited on others
Sparklight 700GB-1.2TB, unlimited on some higher plans
Viasat
Read full review
40-300GB
WideOpenWest 1.5-3TB for most markets
Xfinity
Read full review
1.2TB
Show more (4 items)

Of course, many more providers across the country impose data caps on their customers, but these are some of the biggest ISPs out there that enforce limits on your home internet service.

Research ISPs and your own data usage

Suppose you currently have a broadband provider imposing a data cap on your internet service. In that case, your first step should be researching if your address is serviceable for another provider. You can save yourself a lot of hassle if you sign up with an ISP with no data caps.

But if that isn't an option, you want to start by being aware of how much data your typical online activities use. In CNET's internet speed guide, we include recommendations for the type of speed you'll need for various online activities. Let's revisit that chart, but add the amount of data you'll typically use for each activity.

ActivitySpeed requiredAmount of data used per hour
Email 1Mbps1MB
Web browsing 3-5Mbps15-25MB
Social media 3-5Mbps160MB
Video calls 3-5Mbps190-280MB
HD streaming 5-10Mbps3GB
Online gaming 3–6Mbps12-50MB
4K streaming 25Mbps7-8GB
Show more (2 items)

Admittedly, that's a lot of numbers. It can also feel a little esoteric and difficult to grasp. 

According to that OpenVault broadband study I mentioned earlier, it all adds up to the average US household using approximately 514GB of data monthly. That data usage number is steadily on the rise. It's up 11% from the same time in 2021. A year before that, at the peak of 2020, average usage spiked to about 400GB per month. If you have a provider like Cox or Xfinity where your data cap is approximately 1.2TB (1,200GB), you're probably not bumping against your data allowance too often. But other ISPs -- especially on their cheaper, more introductory plans -- feature limits in the 40GB-to-300GB range, which is below what the average American household uses and would require some belt-tightening, as it were.

So, once you build some awareness of how much data your typical activities eat up, you can also start to anticipate when your data consumption might increase.

image-of-data-usage-consumption-streaming-services-menu

Binge with caution: Streaming TV and movies in 4K is one of the fastest ways to burn through your data allotment.

Sarah Tew/CNET

I'll give you an example from my experience. During the pandemic, my wife and I indulged in a new 4K TV and Sonos system to make the most of our shelter-at-home experience. After all, if I'm going to watch Dune or The Batman from my couch instead of at the movie theater, I want to have a theatrical-adjacent type of experience, complete with crisp, bright images and booming surround sound. 

That also meant we had to upgrade our Netflix subscription to take advantage if we wanted to watch Stranger Things or The Great British Baking Show in Dolby Vision. But according to Netflix, that move meant we doubled our data usage. Instead of using 3GB per hour with each program, we were now eating up data at a rate of 7GB per hour of viewing. 

Do we regret it? Not at all. We went into it with our eyes wide open about the data usage cost we would incur, which meant we could prepare for it. We definitely would have had sticker shock after our extensive quarantine binge sessions if we had been unaware. This leads to my next point…

att-app-data-usage-isp-internet

Download your internet provider's app and log in to monitor your data usage throughout the month.

Screenshot by Ry Crist/CNET

Check yourself by monitoring your usage

It's one thing to know how much data certain activities use up. It's another to stay on top of how much you use. Just as we might be shocked by how many calories we consume in a day once we start to pay attention, we might similarly be stunned by what's gobbling up our data. 

There are many different ways to track your data usage, but perhaps the easiest is to download and use your ISP's app. One big reason is that this is how your provider tracks your usage and what it's holding you accountable for. This will allow you to stay on top of things and pace yourself for your billing cycle, which is crucial because, in most cases, your data usage isn't tracked by the calendar month but by a rolling 30-day cycle. Your ISP's app will help you sync up correctly with that window.

That said, you can also track your usage by using the settings on your router. I mention this mainly for those who might be using their own equipment rather than the modem/router rental from the provider. It's a good way of checking your usage against the provider's app and helping you see if there are any inconsistencies.

Plan ahead to maximize your data usage

Now that you have a better idea of the amount of data you tend to use, you can start to think several steps ahead about what you need to do to maximize the use of your monthly data allowance.

Let's go back to the example of my streaming services splurge. While I intentionally increased my data usage to take advantage of streaming in 4K, you can also go the other way to help minimize the dent in your data allowance. 

Let's say you want to catch up on episodes of The Sandman on your tablet while your roommate watches something else on the TV. You can go to Netflix settings and lower the video quality, so you're streaming in standard definition rather than HD or 4K. You can do this for Disney Plus, Facebook, Hulu, YouTube and other services.

data-usage-apple-tv-plus-app-data-settings

Most streaming apps include options for limiting the amount of data they use, though that typically means passing on HD and 4K. Here's the setting with Apple TV Plus.

Ry Crist/CNET

Also, take the time to explore what options your provider might have to help you massage your data cap. For example, HughesNet and Viasat offer windows where customers get additional data for no extra cost.

The HughesNet Bonus Zone, which occurs during the off-peak hours of 2 a.m. to 8 a.m., gives customers an additional 50GB of monthly data. Viasat features unmetered data for customers on specific plans during a similar window of 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. Are those times convenient? No. But with some planning, you can schedule some movie or gaming downloads to take advantage of the extra data.

Bottom line: When it comes to data caps, be disciplined but realistic

It's fair to say that we all have moments when we must recline on the couch and binge to our heart's content. No judgment here. But when all's said and done, if you've done the work -- taken advantage of various bonus times and opportunities to downgrade some of your activities to use up less data -- and still find you're exceeding your data cap, maybe it's time to pay for unlimited data.

Most ISPs will typically charge you $10 for every 50GB you burn through over your data cap. In most cases where there's an option for unlimited data, it'll cost you an additional $30 to $40 per month, so if you're paying $50 or more in overage fees, on average, it's time to consider paying up front instead.

If unlimited data isn't an option with your provider, you're in a more challenging spot. In that case, it's a good idea to start by exploring other options to see if another provider might be a better data fit, even if the speeds are slower. If there aren't any options like those available at your address, you'll need to keep a frugal data budget to avoid the extra fees that come with breaking your cap. Maybe that means binging your next series via DVD or Blu-ray, scheduling your downloads for the wee hours of the morning or limiting your internet usage to essential functions like staying connected with family and paying bills. Whatever the case, understanding the ins and outs of your plan and how you rack up data during the month is the key to making it work.

How to Manage Your Data Cap FAQs

Is it possible to change my data cap?

Yes. Most internet service providers that enforce a data cap will allow their customers to purchase additional data either incrementally (like HughesNet's data tokens) or via unlimited data, which often costs an additional $30 to $40 per month. If you typically stay within your data cap and only occasionally get charged a $5 or $10 overage fee, then splurging for unlimited data would be a bad deal. But if you're getting hit with additional fines of $40 to $100 per month (and most ISPs will cap their monthly overage fees at around $100), you should seriously consider purchasing the unlimited data.

Are there any advantages to having a data cap?

No. Next question?
Seriously, most advantages of having a data cap go to the internet service provider, not the customer. That said, in some cases (but not many), you might save a little money on your monthly bill by having a data cap. But the growing number of ISPs that feature unlimited data -- including 5G home internet, which is becoming more widely available -- makes it highly unlikely that you'll save money in the long term by having a data cap.

Which internet providers don't enforce a data cap?

Thankfully, the number of internet service providers that don't enforce a data cap is much higher than those that do. For example, although certain AT&T internet plans have a data cap, none of its AT&T Fiber plans do. Other notable ISPs that have unlimited data include (but are not limited to): CenturyLink, Frontier, Google Fiber, Metronet, Optimum, Spectrum, Starlink, Starry Internet, T-Mobile Home Internet, Verizon Fios, Verizon 5G Home Internet, Ziply Fiber and many more.