How much data does RV life use? GB per hour, day and month

Data per hour, by activity

GB per hour, from each service’s own published figures (checked Oct 5, 2026)
Activity	GB/hour	How we got it
Netflix, Low setting	0.3	Stated by the service (“up to”)
Netflix, Medium setting	0.7	Stated by the service (“up to”)
Netflix, standard definition	1	Stated by the service (“up to”)
Netflix, HD	3	Stated by the service (“up to”)
Netflix, 4K	7	Stated by the service (“up to”)
YouTube, 480p	0.5	Converted from 1.1 Mbps recommended
YouTube, 1080p	2.25	Converted from 5 Mbps recommended
YouTube, 4K	9	Converted from 20 Mbps recommended
Zoom 1:1 call, 720p (up + down)	1.08	Converted from 2.4 Mbps recommended
Zoom group call, 720p (up + down)	1.98	Converted from 4.4 Mbps recommended
Zoom group call, 1080p (up + down)	3.06	Converted from 6.8 Mbps recommended

Converted from the service’s recommended speed: GB per hour = Mbps × 0.45 (3,600 seconds ÷ 8 bits per byte ÷ 1,000). Recommended speeds are what the service asks for; real use is often lower.

Per day and per month on the road

Estimates built from the rates above, for five typical days. Every preset adds 1 GB a day for email, maps, browsing, and app and phone updates. That 1 GB is our assumption, not a measurement: no source we trust publishes one figure for it. The owner-run test (planned) will replace it.

Typical days and what a 30-day month of them adds up to
A typical day	GB/day	30 days	Smallest Roam plan that fits a full month
Email, maps and browsing Weather, maps, messages, a little social media. No video.	1	30 GB	Roam 100GB
Streaming in the evenings About 2 hours of HD streaming a night, plus the basics.	7	210 GB	Roam 300GB
Full-time remote work About 3 hours of group video calls a workday, plus the basics.	6.9	207 GB	Roam 300GB
Remote work plus evening streaming 3 hours of calls and 2 hours of HD streaming a day.	12.9	387 GB	Roam Unlimited
A household streaming most of the day About 6 hours of HD streaming a day across devices.	19	570 GB	Roam Unlimited

Email, maps and browsing

Streaming in the evenings

Full-time remote work

Remote work plus evening streaming

A household streaming most of the day

GB in a 30-day month. Striped bars are over 300GB: those days need Roam Unlimited for a full month on the road.

Use less without noticing

Set Netflix to Medium or standard definition on a phone or tablet: up to 0.7 or 1 GB an hour instead of 3.
Turn off automatic phone, laptop and game updates on capped plans; run them on campground Wi-Fi.
Pause cloud photo backup while on the road.
Download shows on campground Wi-Fi before you leave.

Our planned owner-run test

Questions people ask

How much data does Starlink use per day in an RV?

It depends on what you do, not on the dish. By our estimate from published rates: about 1 GB a day with no video, about 7 GB with two hours of HD streaming, and about 12.9 GB with work calls plus streaming.

Does Starlink use more data than cellular for the same video?

No. A video uses what the app sends at a given quality, whichever connection carries it. What differs is that apps often pick a higher quality on a fast connection, which uses more. Set streaming apps to a fixed quality on capped plans.

Do uploads count?

Video calls send as much as they receive, and Zoom’s figures are for both directions. We count both. Starlink’s app shows your usage; check it a week into each trip.

Sources

Roam plans and kits for US addresses (starlink.com public order data), read from starlink.com’s published data, checked Oct 5, 2026
How to control how much data Netflix uses (Netflix Help Center) (secondary), checked Oct 5, 2026
System requirements: recommended sustained speed (YouTube Help) (secondary), checked Oct 5, 2026
Zoom system requirements: bandwidth (Zoom Support) (secondary), checked Oct 5, 2026