🎥How much data does Zoom/Meet use: weekly traffic plan 📊

Are you a road warrior or have you recently connected an eSIM? Then it's time to get excited about understanding your traffic usage profile! This includes meeting format, duration, screen sharing and recording. Discover the secret to avoiding overpaying and selecting the perfect tariff with a "buffer" – all with just a basic "GB/hour" and a small buffer! Plan your weekly load with complete peace of mind! Check out the awesome guidelines below for SD/HD/FHD, the impact of platforms, ready-made scenarios for a week, and easy ways to save money so that your calls are stable and your bill is predictable.

How many GB/hour does SD/HD/FHD use?

As a guideline, take: SD 360p — ~0.6 GB/hour, HD 720p — ~1.2 GB/hour, FHD 1080p — ~2.2 GB/hour. Audio alone consumes about 0.3 GB/hour. These are average values without taking into account active screen sharing and recording. In reality, consumption varies due to codecs and connection stability: with a poor connection, the platform increases redundancy — traffic can increase by 10–20%. For planning purposes, add a 20% buffer to any scenario.

How do Zoom/Meet/Teams differ in terms of consumption?

The difference between platforms is usually less than the impact of the mode (SD/HD/FHD), the proportion of screen sharing, and the number of participants. In group calls, encoding is often more aggressive — add +10–20% to the base estimate. On mobile devices, some clients automatically reduce quality — consumption is lower, but the picture is also lower quality. Always focus on your typical scenario: duration, participants, whether screen sharing and recording are required.

How to count a week with 1–2/3–5 calls per day?

The formula is simple: GB/hour × (minutes/60) × number of calls × days + 20% buffer. Examples:
1–2 calls/day, 45 min, 5 days, HD (1.2 GB/hour) → ~1.2 × 0.75 × 1.5 × 5 ≈ 6.8 GB + buffer ≈ 8.2 GB.
3–5 calls/day, 40–50 min, HD → range 15–30 GB/week with buffer.
For FHD, the figures almost double. It is more convenient to calculate using our calculator table (link at the end).

How does screen sharing and recording affect this?

Screen sharing adds ~0.2–0.35 GB/hour (depending on the mode and frame rate). If you share your screen half the time, add half of this value. Cloud recording uses almost no data (it happens on the server), but local recording/autosync can add load when uploading files to the cloud — add another +0.3–0.6 GB/hour of upload if you upload recordings immediately.

How to save: disable HD/video/background?

Three quick tips: turn off HD, turn off video when you're not talking, and remove heavy backgrounds/effects. Share your window instead of your entire screen for lower bitrate. Enable "data saver" in the client and system background traffic restrictions. In group calls, connect via audio if your role is to listen. As a rule, stable 720p looks better than choppy 1080p and saves gigabytes.

How to account for background updates/clouds?

Before meetings, pause OS and app updates, close photo/drive syncing, and disable auto-loading messengers. After large meetings (demos/recordings), unload during "quiet hours" or over Wi-Fi. On your laptop, keep an eye on cloud clients: OneDrive/Drive/Dropbox easily "eat up" uplink in the background — this kills call quality and eats up your data plan.

How to control traffic on iOS/Android?

iOS: "Cellular → Statistics" — view usage by app, reset counters at the beginning of the week. Enable Low Data Mode in "Cellular/Wi-Fi". Android: "Network & Internet → Data usage" — limits and warnings, disable background data for heavy apps. In Zoom/Meet/Teams, enable economy mode and disable auto-HD. For hotspots, add a traffic threshold to avoid "burning" your data plan.

How to distribute GB between devices?

If you have a phone + laptop, decide where video calls will take place (keep your main package there) and where messengers/email will be used (you can put them on a smaller tariff). For road setups, keep a second eSIM with a small package as a backup. With home internet, make calls via Ethernet/Wi-Fi and save your mobile gigabytes for travel. Take a weekly snapshot of your traffic — a table will quickly show you any overages.

What to do if you exceed your limit?

First, reduce the quality (720p/SD), turn off backgrounds and unnecessary video. Temporarily switch large participants to audio. Check for downloads/updates in the background. If you are about to reach your limit, purchase a short-term package and enable a strict limit in the system to avoid expensive overage charges. For the long term, review your tariff plan with a reserve and the distribution of traffic between devices.

How to choose a tariff with a margin?

Add up your typical weekly usage using the formula, multiply by 4.3 (average number of weeks in a month) and add +20–30%. If you travel frequently or make demo calls, add another 20%. Example: your 15 GB/week → 15 × 4.3 ≈ 65 GB → with a buffer of 80–85 GB/month. It's better to choose a slightly higher tariff and relax than to have to "buy extra gigabytes" at the most inconvenient moment.

How to account for group calls?

For meetings with 4+ participants, multiply the base consumption by 1.2 — more video streams, more active codec. If you are mainly listening, you can connect via audio and keep the video off, turning it on when someone speaks. This will save traffic and stabilise the uplink, especially on eSIM during busy hours.

Discovering your traffic "profile" is the key to a smooth eSIM experience and choosing the perfect home tariff for you! By counting by weeks, keeping a buffer, disabling "heavy" backgrounds and sharing, and your calls will remain crystal clear, even on small packages. And for those important weeks, just raise the bar or connect a reserve – the possibilities are endless!

I'm so excited to hear about any inaccuracies or updates you've found, especially when it comes to coefficients, modes and codecs! We would love to hear from you via the feedback form in the catalogue. We will check it out and update the article as soon as we can. And don't forget to share your scenarios in the comments – we're all learning here, and it's great to help each other plan our gigabytes more accurately!