How to check data usage on iPhone and iPad

Are you worried about using too much data on your iPhone or iPad? Are you worried about exceeding your monthly data limit or incurring additional charges? Don’t worry, controlling data usage on your Apple device is easy and can help you monitor and manage your data consumption. In this article, we will show you how to check data usage on iPhone and iPad quickly and easily.

Monitor your data usage

First of all, it is important to understand how much data you are using on your iPhone or iPad. This allows you to avoid excessive charges or slowdowns in your data connection speed. Here’s how to check your data usage through iOS settings:

1. Open the “Settings” app on your device.
2. Tap the “Cellular” option (or “Cellular Data” or “Mobile Data,” depending on the iPhone or iPad you own and the version of iOS you have installed).
3. Scroll down to the “Cellular Data” section.
4. Here you can view a summary of your data usage for the current period, including data used while roaming (usually more expensive) and data used by each of your apps, sorted from highest to lowest. You can also disable cellular data access for individual apps to reduce data consumption.

Reset data usage counters.

When you check your data usage, you may notice an indicator called “Current Period.” This indicator does not automatically reset each billing period, but it continues to accumulate data until you manually reset it. Here’s how to reset the data usage counters:

1. Open the “Settings” app on your device.
2. Tap the “Cellular” option (or “Cellular Data” or “Mobile Data,” depending on the iPhone or iPad you own and the version of iOS you have installed).
3. Scroll to the bottom of the screen.
4. Note the date and time of the last reset. This indicates the beginning of the “Current Period” for data above this value.
5. Tap “Reset Statistics.” This will clear all data counters, as well as the “Current Period” call time. Keep in mind that the total call time cannot be reset and is associated with your iPhone’s specific hardware.

Call your carrier

If you want to know your data usage quickly and automatically, you can call your phone carrier. Don’t worry, you won’t have to talk to anyone, as the process is completely automated. Here are some common codes for checking data usage with various phone carriers:

• AT&T: Dial *3282# to receive a message with information about data and message usage.
• T-Mobile: Dial #932# to get information on data usage, plan and important dates.
• Verizon: Dial #3282# to get an estimate of data and message usage this billing cycle. Verizon will also provide you with audio information if you listen to your phone after the call.

Turn off cellular data.

If you get close to the limits of your monthly data plan, you may have to take the extreme approach and turn off cellular data on your device completely. This will limit your communication options to only voice calls and SMS/MMS text messages when you are not connected to a Wi-Fi network. However, it ensures that you will not be charged additional fees for data usage. Here’s how to quickly turn off cellular data:

1. From the home screen of your iPhone or iPad, swipe down from the top right corner to open the iOS Control Center. If you’re using an iPhone with a Home button, such as iPhone 8 or iPhone SE, swipe up instead.
2. Tap the green button in the top left panel of the Control Center to turn off cellular data. The button should turn gray.
3. You can also tap and hold this panel to expand it and confirm that cellular data is turned off.
4. Repeat the above steps to turn cellular data back on. The button should turn green when cellular data is enabled.

Turn off the Wi-Fi assistant.

Your iPhone includes a feature called “Wi-Fi Assistant” that uses cellular data to support your Wi-Fi connection when it is not working properly. Although this feature doesn’t usually consume a lot of data, it can become a problem if you often find yourself on slow or unstable Wi-Fi networks. Fortunately, you can check how much data it is using and turn Wi-Fi Assistant off if you prefer to avoid surprises. Here’s how:

1. Open the “Settings” app on your device.
2. Tap the “Cellular” option (or “Cellular Data” or “Mobile Data,” depending on the iPhone or iPad you own and the version of iOS you have installed).
3. Scroll to the bottom of the screen.
4. Look for the “Wi-Fi Assistant” option. It should be right under the list of your apps.
5. Note the amount of data used by the Wi-Fi Assistant during the current period. This represents times when your iPhone or iPad was connected to a Wi-Fi network but had to switch to the cellular network. Generally, this figure should not exceed a few hundred kilobytes.
6. If you find that this figure is higher than you would like or if you don’t want to risk using too much data, tap the switch to turn off the Wi-Fi Assistant. This way, everything that happens on your Wi-Fi network will stay on your Wi-Fi network.

Turn off cellular data while traveling (roaming)

Using cellular data while traveling can become very expensive, as you usually pay extra fees for using other operators’ cellular networks. This is called “roaming.” Fortunately, your iPhone and iPad recognize when they are on your carrier’s network or when they are roaming on a foreign network, so you can easily turn off cellular data only when you are roaming without having to turn them off completely. Also, you can leave them turned off to avoid roaming charges. Here’s how:

1. Open the “Settings” app on your device.
2. Tap the “Cellular” option (or “Cellular Data” or “Mobile Data,” depending on the iPhone or iPad you own and the version of iOS you have installed).
3. At the top of this screen, look for the “Cellular Data Options” option. If “Roaming Off” is indicated, you’re all set: cellular data will be automatically turned off as soon as your device detects that it is roaming on another network.
4. If, on the other hand, you see “Roaming enabled,” tap this option to open the “Cellular Data Options.”
5. Tap the switch next to “Data Roaming” at the top of the screen to turn it off.

Save data with low data mode

If you frequently use the maximum amount of your monthly data but still want to make the most of it, you can turn on the built-in “Low Data Mode” feature on your iPhone or iPad. This option will automatically reduce data consumption in general and is the only way to turn on data saver settings in many of Apple’s built-in apps. This will not disable cellular data for your apps, but it will make sure they use less of it. For example, enabling “Low Data Mode” will reduce the video bitrate for FaceTime calls by optimizing it for lower bandwidth. This will save data and improve the experience of using FaceTime when connected to a slower network, such as an older 3G network. There is no single specific setting for this, the only way to access this feature is by enabling “Low Data Mode.” Here’s how:

1. Open the “Settings” app on your device.
2. Tap the “Cellular” option (or “Cellular Data” or “Mobile Data,” depending on the iPhone or iPad you own and the version of iOS you have installed).
3. Tap “Cellular data options.”
4. Tap “Data mode” (or “Low data mode”).
5. Tap “Low data mode.”

Keep in mind that if you have an iPhone 12 or later and have a 5G plan, you will see another option here called “Allow more data over 5G.” This option does the opposite, allowing high-speed 5G data to be used for functions that normally run only over a Wi-Fi connection, such as automatic iCloud backups and software updates.

Conclusions

Keeping track of data usage can be crucial to avoid unpleasant overcharges at the end of the month, especially if you have a limited data plan. Although many carriers are offering more generous data plans these days, an equal number of apps are increasing their data usage to take advantage of these higher limits. So even though you have more data in your plan, it is still important to keep an eye on what is using it.

With the simple steps outlined in this article, you can easily monitor data usage on your iPhone or iPad. Remember to check your data usage regularly and take steps to manage consumption, such as turning off cellular data or turning on low data mode. In this way, you can keep your data usage under control and enjoy your device experience without worry.

We hope this information has been helpful to you!