How big is a YouTube video?

Kevin Lee
Kevin Lee
Jul 30, 2017 · 2 min read

Have you ever busted your data plan watching YouTube on your phone? I have.

So, how can we prevent this from happening? We can try to moderate our use of YouTube while on a data plan, but by how much? To answer this question, we need to find out how big is a typical YouTube video.

Here’s what I did. I opened my Chrome Inspector by hitting the F12 key and went to the Network tab which reports on bandwidth usage. Then, I viewed a 4 minute 25 second music video. I chose to use a music video because most people like to watch music videos on YouTube.

Disclaimer: Depending on the exact video that you view, your mileage and results will vary. These results are based on the single video that I viewed on my computer. There is nothing statistically reliable about this; I just wanted to get a quick estimate.

With that out of the way, here are the results.

  • At 1080p (Full HD), the video was 92 MB
  • At 720p (HD), the video was 50 MB
  • At 360p, the video was 18 MB

As you may expect, more bandwidth is used to stream a higher quality video. This is because higher quality videos contain more details. However, it is interesting to note that the jump in bandwidth usage from 360p to 720p to 1080p is quite significant!

So, if you’re on a 2 GB (2000 MB) monthly data plan, and solely spend it on YouTube, you can stream roughly

  • 20 videos at 1080p
  • 40 videos at 720p
  • 110 videos at 360p (wow)

The results indicate that if you want to view 2 or more videos per day without exceeding your plan, you should set the resolution to less than 720p. Although you get less quality, you get to watch more videos (especially relevant if you travel long distances via public transport).

You can always set the preferred resolution you want in your YouTube settings (click/tap on the little cogwheel below the video). Otherwise, it is usually set to auto, i.e. if you have a good connection speed, it will try to show you a higher quality video.

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