How much data does Disney Plus use?

It is unsurprising to find Disney Plus entering the streaming world, even though it is quite a recent entrant. However, its media collection makes it is easy to get carried away and spend more data than you hoped.

Launching in 2019 with more than 7,500 television episodes and 500 movies, Disney Plus aims to make all content accessible on one platform. While many see it as a great idea, you cannot underestimate the importance of tracking its mobile data usage. When you prepare yourself, it is easier to avoid unexpected issues when watching content using your mobile data.

Even though data is unclear on the exact mobile bandwidth you use on the service, estimates show that you spend approximately between 1 and 3 GB per hour, even though this largely depends on whether you are streaming in standard or high definition.

Does Disney Plus use high data amounts?

Unlike most video streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube, Disney Plus only operates on 2 settings for its picture quality: Data Saver and Auto, which are likely equivalents of SD (standard definition) and HD (high definition). Similar to most streaming platforms though, Disney Plus assumes that your internet can handle Auto (high definition) unless you manually change the setting to Data Saver (standard definition).

The problem is that Disney Plus does not disclose the statistics of data use from their app, though many online forums and sources give some information about it that is useful for calculating estimates, as we show in the table below.

Note that these estimates are only a guess and we base them on a variety of sources. You can use them as a guideline to plan your viewing experience, and they mirror other streaming services as well.

What about if Disney Plus is buffering?

If you are experiencing lags when watching the classic Disney sing-a-longs, then the problem is not the platform itself – the culprit is your data/internet speed. Some guidelines from Disney are:

• Watching content in 4K (Ultra High Definition), speed must be a minimum of 25 Mbps
• Watching content in 1080p (HD), the minimum speed should be 5 Mbps

How can I limit my data usage when using Disney Plus?

Minimizing your bandwidthusage is easy, as you can change your quality settings to ‘Data Saver’ from ‘Auto’ on mobile. If you have access to a reliable Wi-Fi network, you can adjust the settings to only stream videos when you connect your device to it.

Similar to many video streaming apps, Disney Plus will let you download videos if you want to watch them offline later. This is a good idea when you want to save your data since yourdevice’s internalmemory holds the videos and you can replay them without using up your data. When you are downloading, you can even choose between 3 quality settings – high, medium, or standard.

Compared to other streaming platforms, how does Disney Plus fare?

In the comparison table below, we look at Disney Plus against 5 otherstreaming services when it comes to data consumption. This will give you a rough idea of the data you are using per hour when watching the same content on different services.

Conclusion

Disney Plus aims to provide content in the best video quality, so you will not experience issues if you have an excellent internet connection. However, the platform is significantly bandwidth-heavy compared to other streaming services, and can easily consume your data if you do not monitor it closely when relying on a mobile broadband connection.

FAQs

Does Disney Plus consume a lot of bandwidth?

When compared to most video streaming platforms, it can. Even though the exact figures are unclear as the service is still relatively new, estimates show that you use an average of 1 to 3 GB per hour, depending on the streaming quality.

Does Disney Plus need higher streaming speed compared to Netflix?

While the platform is among the youngest ones, its streaming requirements mirror most streaming services. If you want to stream content in HD quality, you will need a minimum speed of 5 Mbps, while watching the same content in 4K needs a minimum speed of 25 Mbps – the same with Netflix.