How Much Data Does Our Streaming Use?

In a world where data can be costly or scarce, knowing how much data a service consumes is crucial.

5/3/20251 min read

man in black jacket wearing black fitted cap while using phone
man in black jacket wearing black fitted cap while using phone

Data usage is determined by the audio bitrate. Our streaming service uses AAC+ at 64 kbps, meaning that in one second, 64 kilobits are transmitted. We convert this to kilobytes and then to megabytes to calculate the hourly consumption:

1. Kilobytes per second

○ 1 byte = 8 bits → 64 kbps / 8 = 8 KB per second

2. Kilobytes per minute

○ 8 KB × 60 seconds = 480 KB per minute

3. Kilobytes per hour

○ 480 KB × 60 minutes = 28,800 KB per hour

4. Megabytes per hour

• 28,800 KB / 1024 = 28.13 MB per hour

Therefore, a user would consume approximately 28.13 MB of data per hour of listening.

a man sitting on a window sill looking at his cell phone
a man sitting on a window sill looking at his cell phone

To put this into perspective:

• A high-resolution photo weighs around 2-5 MB, meaning one hour of RL1540 streaming equals about 6-14 photos.

• A standard-definition (SD) video consumes about 1 GB per hour, while an HD video can use up to 2 GB per hour. One hour of RL1540 streaming (28.13 MB) equals less than 2 minutes of SD video playback.

• Doomscrolling on a news site with images and text can consume between 50 MB and 150 MB per hour, and if the site has autoplay videos, consumption can rise to 300 MB or more.

RL1540 streaming uses 28.13 MB per hour, meaning that doomscrolling can consume 2 to 10 times more data, depending on the site's content.