Find out how much data you spend using Spotify

Spotify has become an essential application for many mobile users, since they can have at their fingertips a giant catalog of music for a fixed amount per month (or failing that, the enjoyment of the service with interspersed ads, what is known as model 'freemium'), having already convinced more of 100 million of users. However, the use of this service has the downside that affects user data, and if you are not specially organized with the offline playlists or albums (only for Premium accounts), it is very easy to end up throwing away undownloaded material, consuming data But how much data exactly is consumed by the Spotify app? Through Lowi's blog we have been able to find out the specific spending data.

Depending on audio quality

In the Spotify app we can choose the quality in the one we want to listen to the content: low (96 Kbps), high (160 Kbps) and extrema (320 kbps), these last two modes only available for Premium users

If we have the free basic package we will opt for a quality of 96 Kbps and this will mean an expense per hour of reproduction of some 43 megabytes On the other hand, the expense of megabytes if we are reproducing 160 Kbps is 72 megabytes per hour, and in case we are using the maximum quality, 320 Kbps, we would be talking about 144 megabytes spent per hour reproduced.

Expenditure in comparison

Is that a lot or a little? Apart from putting it in relation to the number of gigabytes you have contracted with your operator, keep in mind that other apps as well they spend data, so it is not enough to divide your contracted gigabytes by the streaming audio quality that you have selected.

Facebook, for example, consumes approximately 90 megabytes per hourYouTube also has a variable consumption depending on the video quality: at one extreme we have the 360 pixel videos, which consume 5 megabytes per minute, or 300 per hour Yes If we were to watch videos in their maximum resolution, Full HD, we would then spend 33 megabytes per minute, that is, 2 GB per hourAs for other apps that offer similar content, such as online radios, their consumption is approximately 30 megabytes per hour. Apple Music, for its part, consumes some 40 megabytes per hour reproduced in its highest quality low.

Taking all this into account, Spotify's megabytes spend is within the average of the audio (especially in the free case) and very below the video Still, it's a high cost that used indiscriminately can kill with ease simple contracts of 2 or 3 GB If we have an offer that exceeds 10 GB per month, however, we can work with complete freedom and peace of mind.

Still, our recommendation is the use of the Spotify offline tool , since it is really fast and allows minimize the consumption of data.You only have to download the files taking advantage of the Wi-Fi at home or work to later enjoyof all that material abroad without thinking about data consumption