How much data does tiktok use

Since its release in 2016, TikTok has had over 800 million downloads while amassing over 500 million active users daily. The average user on TikTok uses the app for an average of 53 minutes daily.

TikTok is a major social media platform from China with millions of users across the world and is supported on android and iOS devices. It allows users to make and share a variety of short videos including dance, comedy, and education with a duration of a minute to 3 minutes based on a user. The app is quite addictive and you might find yourself watching a video after another for long hours nonstop. It’s fun until you run out of data with the app being a big consumer of data.

TikTok uses between 360MB and 840MB per hour depending on the mode you’re watching on. The app has two modes including the default and the standardized Data Saving mode with the latter saving your data by over a half.

Mode	Default	Data Saving
5 minutes	70MB	30MB
30 minutes	420MB	180MB
1 hour	840MB	360MB

 

From the table, it’s evident that indeed TikTok consumes a lot of data and by using Data Saving mode, you significantly save on your data. The main consumers of data are the videos which vary in quality. TikTok doesn’t offer the same option as other streaming apps where you can adjust the quality manually to a certain quality. The Data Saving mode automatically drops the video resolution while increasing the loading time between clips to lower your data consumption. This doesn’t affect your viewing experience as much and you can maintain it until you’re back on a Wi-Fi network.

How to save on data

As you can see, TikTok uses a lot of data that you may not be able to keep up with when not on Wi-Fi and it’s wise to save on data. You can save on cellular data while using TikTok in several ways.

Upload & view videos on Wi-Fi only

Wi-Fis are the best medium to upload a video on TikTok if you’re a content creator and for a consumer, it’s best for viewing videos because the videos use a lot of data. The data required can easily deplete your mobile data if you aren’t careful as it’s never enough which means you’ll burn your data in a few days. As a content creator, you can use TikTok offline to make videos and then upload them later when on a Wi-Fi network instead of directly doing it over your cellular network. Similarly, for a viewer, you can cycle through TikTok videos and channels only when on Wi-Fi at home, in a coffee shop, or at work.

Turn off cellular data

We can sometimes forget to switch off our cellular data and end up using TikTok with it thinking it’s the Wi-Fi. This can still work if you’ve turned both your Cellular data and Wi-Fi on.

iPhone

TO turn off cellular data on an iPhone, go to Settings and select Cellular then scroll down to the ‘Cellular Data’ section. On the displayed list, find TikTok and turn off the cellular data by sliding the toggle button to the left. You may have to search for TikTok on the list depending on how many apps you have installed since the list is not sorted alphabetically. This stops TikTok from completely using your cellular data.

Android

On Android phones, you can’t turn off cellular data for a specific app like on iPhones but you can however restrict the background data usage of individual apps when you aren’t using them. Alternatively, you can completely turn off cellular data which will cut off internet access for all apps unless on Wi-Fi. Go to Settings, select ‘Apps’, and tap on TikTok from the list. Select the ‘Mobile data’ option and toggle off ‘Allow background data’ by sliding the toggle button to the left. This ensures that Tiktok doesn’t send/receive data when not in use.

If you want to completely turn off cellular data for a while, you can do it by sliding down your screen and tapping on the Cellular data icon from the list. Alternatively, you can also turn it off by clicking on Settings and selecting ‘Connections’. Next, select ‘Data usage’ and turn off the ‘Mobile data’ option by toggling off the button. This disables internet access for all apps including TikTok.

Stop using TikTok

If you find it hard to always use Wi-Fi instead of your mobile data, you can either get an unlimited data plan or stop using TikTok.

Final Thoughts

TikTok is an interactive game with a lot of likable content. It’s good to keep your data in check while using TikTok because of its huge data consumption rate.

FAQs

Does TikTok take a lot of storage space on my phone?

TikTok may take up a lot of space on your device. This is because when you watch videos, they’re cached on the phone to improve the viewing experience as you don’t have to reload these videos again.

How long can a TikTok video be?

It may be from 3 seconds to over 60 seconds. This depends on where you created the content from. If you create a video directly on TikTok, it will be between 3 to 60 seconds long. If you pre-record it somewhere else before uploading it to the app, it can exceed 60 seconds.