Playing the same song on repeat until you hate it uses up both emotional energy, and your mobile data. Just how much emotional exhaustion you can anticipate? Well that really depends on your personal threshold, but luckily your Spotify data usage is pretty straight forward.
In this guide we look at how much mobile data Spotify uses.
- How much data does Spotify use per hour?
- How much data does downloading on Spotify use?
- Data free music streaming
- Does offline listening use data?
- Changing Spotify audio quality
How much data does Spotify use per hour?
How much data Spotify uses depends on your playback quality, but on the Normal setting you’ll burn through around 43.2MB per hour.
The streaming service gives approximate Kbps usage based on the audio quality, the higher the quality the more data it will use up. The Low setting uses just 24Kbps, Normal uses 96Kbps, High uses 160Kbps, and Very High which is only available on Spotify Premium uses 320Kbps.
Audio quality can be toggled on desktop, mobile, and tablet but if you use the official web player you will use 128Kbps on Spotify’s free version of 256Kbps on Premium. Note that podcasts are all played at a maximum of 96Kbps on mobile and tablet, you won’t be able to increase this quality.
Spotify data usage
| Approximate Kbps | 3 minutes (1 song) | 1 hour | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic | Dependent on network connection | Dependent on network connection | Dependent on network connection |
| Low | 24Kbps | 540KB | 10.8MB |
| Normal | 96Kbps | 2.16MB | 43.2MB |
| High | 160Kbps | 3.6MB | 72MB |
| Very High* | 320Kbps | 7.2MB | 144MB |
*Only available on Spotify Premium
While the usage numbers build significantly as you climb the tiers, the amount of hourly data used even at the highest quality level is still much more palatable than video streaming which can clock 7GB per hour in 4K.
How much data does downloading on Spotify use?
Spotify Premium allows you to download music and podcasts to listen to offline, and on the go. By default the platform will wait until you’re connected to WiFi before downloading your queue but if you’ve toggled this off, then you may want to know how much of your precious data this will use.
How much data downloading on Spotify will use depends on your selected audio quality for downloads. The Kbps usage remains constant whether streaming or downloading so if you’re listening Normally then downloading a typical song will use around 2.16MB.
Here is how much data downloading a song and an album would use on different audio qualities. Note that downloading podcasts will always use the same data as the Normal setting unless you have specified a lower preference.
Naturally, the longer the song or album, the more data your download will use. A 60 minute album will use twice as much data as a 30 minute album.
Spotify typical download data usage
| Approximate Kbps | 1 song (3 minutes) | 1 album (10 song, 30 minutes) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic | Dependent on network connection | Dependent on network connection | Dependent on network connection |
| Low | 24Kbps | 540KB | 5.4MB |
| Normal | 96Kbps | 2.16MB | 21.6MB |
| High | 160Kbps | 3.6MB | 36MB |
| Very High* | 320Kbps | 7.2MB | 72MB |
*Only available on Spotify Premium
Data-free music streaming
Currently no telcos offer data-free music streaming with Spotify music, however Telstra and Boost do offer this in collaboration with Apple Music.
All Boost Mobile recharges have data-free access to Apple Music. Here are the most popular plans available right now.
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Boost Mobile 
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Boost Mobile
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Boost Mobile
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Boost Mobile
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Boost Mobile
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Boost Mobile
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Boost Mobile
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Boost Mobile
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Boost Mobile
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Every Telstra postpaid, Upfront, and prepaid plan includes data-free streaming of Apple Music as well. Here are the most popular Telstra plans on our database.
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#1
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Telstra 
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Telstra
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Telstra
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Note that the data in question only refers to data used specifically to stream audio, where Canvas is enabled you’ll be responsible for any other data used by the images and videos on screen. You can disable Canvas in settings.
Does offline listening use data?
Nope. Offline listening on Spotify won’t use any additional data.
Changing Spotify audio quality
On iPhone
- Tap the Cog in the upper right corner
- Scroll down to Audio Quality
- Select your quality under each category
On Android
- Tap the Cog in the upper right corner
- Scroll down to Audio Quality
- Select from the Drop down menu
Changes will automatically be applied.
On desktop
- Click on your profile in the top right of the screen
- Select settings
- Scroll to Music Quality and select preference from the drop down menu
Changes will be automatically applied.
Anula Wiwatowska
Offsite Editorial Lead | Instagram
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