How to Check Data Usage on an iPhone or iPad

Are you one of those people who is always worrying about how much data you are using on your iPhone or other iOS device? As the end of your provider’s billing cycle nears, wondering if you or a family member will cross the line over your data limit and incur the dreaded additional charges?

Good news. In recent versions of Apple’s operating system, including iOS 13, Apple makes it easier than ever to obsess over data usage and take steps to mitigate it. We’ll show you how to check data usage on an iPhone whenever you want with this quick process, and we’ll explain how it can be used to limit your data usage.

Check your data usage

Understanding your data usage is extremely important, especially if you have a limited data plan. Keeping an eye on the amount of data you are using can prevent you from facing expensive overuse charges or slowing down data speeds. Here’s how to check how much data you’ve been using with built-in iOS tools:

Step 1: On your iPhone or iPad, open the Settings app.

Step 2: Tap on the Mobile option. Note that it may be called Mobile data or Cellular data in some cases, depending on your device, iOS version, and regional settings.

Step 3: Scroll down to the section labeled Cellular data.

Stage 4: From here, you can see an overview of your data usage for the current period, including the total data used, the data used when roaming (which usually costs more), and the data used by each of your apps, ordered from highest to minor. A toggle switch next to each app allows you to disable mobile data access for that app to help reduce your data usage.

Reset your data usage counters

When you check your data usage, the Current period The indicator can be a bit misleading. It may appear that this is automatically reset with each billing period, but that is not actually the case. The numbers just keep accumulating until you manually reset them, and there is no way to program this; you will have to set a reminder for yourself every month if you want to make sure the numbers are for a specific time period. Here’s how to reset your data usage counters:

Step 1: On your iPhone or iPad, open the Settings app.

Step 2: Tap on the Mobile option. Note that it may be called Mobile data or Cellular data in some cases, depending on your device, iOS version, and regional settings.

Step 3: Scroll to the bottom of this screen.

Stage 4: Note the Last reboot_ Date and Time. This indicates the beginning of the Current period for all numbers above this.

Step 5: Tap Reset statistics. This clears all data counters as well as the current Period call time. Note that the Lifetime the call time is tied to the specific hardware of your iPhone and cannot be reset.

Turn off mobile data

If you are approaching the limit of your monthly data allowance, you may need to take the extreme approach and disable mobile data entirely. This will limit your communication options to voice calls and SMS / MMS text messages whenever you are away from a Wi-Fi network, but will also ensure that you will not be charged for any additional data usage. In this case, off really means off. Here’s how to quickly toggle mobile data:

Step 1: From the home screen of your iPhone or iPad, swipe down from the upper right corner to open the iOS Control Center. If you are using an iPhone with a home button, such as an iPhone 8 or iPhone SE, swipe up from the bottom.

Step 2: Tap on the green button in the upper left panel of the control center to disable mobile data. The button should turn gray.

Step 3: You can also touch and hold this panel and expand it to confirm that mobile data is turned off.

Stage 4: Repeat the steps above to reactivate your mobile data. The button should turn green when mobile data is enabled.

Disable Wi-Fi Assistant

Your iPhone includes a feature called Wi-Fi assistant which uses mobile data to back up your Wi-Fi connection when it’s not working as it should. While this doesn’t normally use a lot of data, it can become a problem if you regularly hang out on slow or spotty Wi-Fi networks. Fortunately, you can check how much data you’ve been using and turn it off if you don’t want to risk surprises. That’s how:

Step 1: On your iPhone or iPad, open the Settings app.

Step 2: Tap on the Mobile option. Note that it may be called Mobile data or Cellular data in some cases, depending on your device, iOS version, and regional settings.

Step 3: Scroll to the bottom of this screen.

Stage 4: Look for Wi-Fi Assistant. It should be right below your list of apps.

Step 5: Take into account the amount of data that Wi-Fi Assist has used during the current period. This represents the times when your iPhone or iPad was connected to Wi-Fi, but needed to go to the cellular network. In most cases, this number should not exceed a few hundred kilobytes.

Step 6: If you find that this number is higher than you would like, or you just don’t want to risk using too much data, tap the switch to disable Wi-Fi Assist. This will ensure that what happens on your Wi-Fi network stays on your Wi-Fi network.

Turn off mobile data when traveling (roaming)

Using mobile data when traveling can quickly become very expensive, as you typically pay more to use other providers’ mobile networks. Is named Roaming. Fortunately, your iPhone and iPad know when they are on your carrier’s network or when they are roaming on a foreign network, so you can easily disable mobile data only while roaming without the need to worry about turning it off completely. Best of all, this means you can completely drop it so you never risk roaming charges in the first place. That’s how:

Step 1: On your iPhone or iPad, open the Settings app.

Step 2: Tap on the Mobile option. Note that it may be called Mobile data or Cellular data in some cases, depending on your device, iOS version, and regional settings.

Step 3: At the top of this screen, find Mobile data options. If this says Roaming disabled, then that’s okay: mobile data will be automatically disabled as soon as your device detects that you are roaming on another provider’s network.

Stage 4: If you see Roaming enabled instead, tap this to open your Mobile data options.

Step 5: Tap the switch next to data roaming at the top of the screen to disable it.

Save data with low data mode

If you are frequently faced with the limits of your data plan, but still want to make the most of it, you can take advantage of the Low data mode function on your iPhone or iPad. This single option will automatically reduce data usage across the board and is actually the only way to activate the data saving settings in many of Apple’s built-in apps. This doesn’t disable mobile data for any of your apps, but it makes sure they use less.

For example, enable Low data mode will lower the video bit rate for FaceTime calls to optimize for lower bandwidth. This saves data and also makes FaceTime run smoother when you have a slower connection, like an older 3G network. There is no individual setting for this; the only way to do it is by activating Low data mode.

Enable Low data mode_ will also disable automatic downloads and iCloud backups, pause updates to your iCloud Photo Library, and disable background updating for all your apps. It also lowers the quality of streaming content in all of Apple’s built-in apps like Music, TV, and Podcasts, though you need to be careful, as not all third-party apps honor this setting.

Here’s how to enable Low data mode:

Step 1: On your iPhone or iPad, open the Settings app.

Step 2: Tap on the Mobile option. Note that it may be called Mobile data or Cellular data in some cases, depending on your device, iOS version, and regional settings.

Step 3: Tap Mobile data options.

Stage 4: Tap Data mode.

Step 5: TapLow data mode.

Note that if you have an iPhone 12 or newer and are on a 5G plan, you will see another option here to Allow more data in 5G. This does the opposite, allowing the higher speed 5G data to be used for things that normally only run over a Wi-Fi connection, such as automatic iCloud backups and software updates.

Keeping track of your data usage can be crucial to avoiding nasty end-of-month overuse charges, especially if you’re on a limited data plan. Although many carriers offer more generous data allowances these days, an equal number of apps are increasing their data usage to take advantage of those higher limits, so just because you have more data in your plan doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stick with it. keeping an eye on what you are wearing.

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