Discord has been gaining huge popularity among gaming lovers. The built-in features like voice calls and texting with some amazing customizable options, the app offers you unlimited fun and seamless conversations.
Discord connects you with friends, family, and social groups. You can engage in fun conversations using third-party apps like Spotify to enhance your communication experience by including music and videos. This dynamic experience makes this app perfect for international calls as it acts as a VOIP, which means that it requires data to function properly.
If you love using fun apps to communicate with your loved ones, get ready to spend mobile data. For this, you must know how much data does Discord use? Although multiple factors play an important role in data usage, like the time spent and the type of activities done on the app, the actual data usage is still different for everyone.
To find out more about this, let’s read further!
Data Usage – An Overview
If you want to know how much data does Discord use, we have good news!
- While using on a PC or desktop, Discord will use more data as compared to your mobile phone.
- Texting on Discord will consume 280 KB or .28 MB per hour, which is equivalent to the size of a Facebook photo!
- Discord voice chats consume 28 MB per hour.
- Video calls on Discord consume 270 MB per hour.
Although Discord has not officially announced how much data is being used, we are going by average usage. The app acts as a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), which works only on data.
Table of Contents
Understanding Data Usage in Communication Apps
To communicate better on various apps, you need to send text, voice messages, images, and videos. One must understand that while a simple text uses the least amount of data, images take up a lot of data. Voice chats use minimal data depending on the time spent on a voice call; video calls, on the other hand, utilize more data!
In the case of Discord, the data usage depends on the on-screen time, activities, frequency of use, server activities, etc.
| Recommended Read: Best Chat Apps: Free, Secure, and Anonymous Apps
Data Usage Via Wi-Fi and Mobile
It is essential to understand that both Wi-Fi and mobile data use radio waves to connect. However, Wi-Fi covers a limited area only like your residential building while the mobile data is dependent on the signal towers and connects you wherever there is coverage.
Now, the mobile data plans are based on gigabytes and the speed they offer in a particular package. Hence, when you are using Discord, you must keep in mind all these factors so that you can switch to an affordable 5G mobile network that offers you the best deal and seamless connectivity.
Data Usage During Voice Chat
As per Glasswire, while doing a 5-minute voice chat, approximately 300Kb data is downloaded and after 3 hours of voice chat with 3-10 people, data downloaded usage was approximately 20MB. The data usage is equivalent to streaming approximately 3-4 tracks on Spotify.
However, if there is an exchange of files including hi-resolution images and videos, the data usage will exceed instantly. Based on the estimated data usage mentioned above, if voice chat is used 24 hours consistently, the download and upload speed is expected to be 20MB.
Data Usage –Discord Vs Other Apps
Compared to other popular apps like Netflix and YouTube, Discord uses less data. Refer to the table mentioned below and get a clear idea.
| Applications | Download Speed (Per Hour) | Upload Speed (Per Hour) |
| Discord | 5MB-50MB | 1MB-25MB |
| Browsing Internet | 60MB-150MB | 20MB-70MB |
| Netflix | 500MB-1.5GB | 10MB-50MB |
| YouTube | 300MB-450MB | 5MB-20MB |
PS: The data streaming was calculated for Netflix at 1080p resolution and YouTube at 720p.
Discord’s Data Consumption – Per Hour Usage
The data usage per hour is not easy to calculate as the data consumption completely depends on the internet connection speed and what’s going on in the background! Apart from this, one has to understand that-
- Sharing a video or picture will consume more data as compared to plain text messages.
- Screen sharing and multiple group chats will use more data.
- Devices like laptops, phones, etc. Rum multiple applications at the same time, which affects the data consumption.
- Background applications significantly affect data usage.
- Some applications use location and synchronize content, which eats up your data.
All these factors affect the data consumption of Discord. However, you can reduce data usage by shutting down background apps and opting for a superfast 5G cellular connection.
How Much Data Does Discord Use?
To monitor the data usage by Discord for sending text messages, and voice and video calls, the Glasswire app was used to get a clear idea! The data is based on the type of device, quality of the device, number of members in the group, etc. Here are the findings.
For Voice Calls and Messages
The data usage for voice and video calls was minimal as compared to other mediums. The initial data used on a voice call was 674kb. Within 2 minutes, the data increased to approximately 200kb. During this time, there was no exchange of texts or heavy files.
On a 2-minute one-on-one video call, the data consumption was recorded to be around 11.4MB, which was more than the previous estimate of 872kb. In a nutshell, almost 11 MB of data was consumed in a 2-minute video call, which is almost the same as WhatsApp.
Discord voice chats consume approximately 28 MB per hour. Remember, background apps affect data usage and can be monitored to minimize data usage. In comparison to other applications like Skype, Discord uses less data as it uses data continuously, while Discord transmits data only when the person is speaking.
For Video Calls
Discord transmits data only while speaking, hence, the data consumption is 270 MB per hour. The data usage is affected by background applications and other apps running in the background. If you use video calls frequently, make sure that the background apps are in check.
The data used on other applications is more as compared to Discord, this app can be used to communicate with your friends and family.
For Text Messages
While sending a text message through Discord, you are sending a HTTP post request. In the app, the data usage is drastically affected by the number of people in the group.
If we consider a conversation between two people, an hour-long conversation can consume up to 280 KB or .28 MB, which is approximately the size of a Facebook picture!
For Music and Streaming
The data consumption on Discord for streaming music will depend on the services you are using. Discord works with many third-party apps; hence, the data consumption depends on the type of app being used.
For instance, popular streaming apps like Spotify use 43.2MB per hour for music and YouTube consumes 150MB per hour if used at the lowest quality. In the case of high-quality settings, Discord can use up to 1 GB per hour of data.
How to Monitor Data Usage by Discord?
It is important to keep track of the data usage by Discord so that you can optimize the app and make the most of it! Here are some simple steps to monitor data usage by Discord-
On iPhone
- Go to the ‘Settings’.
- Choose ‘Cellular’.
- Scroll down the list of apps and check next to them to see the data consumption by every app.
- The information on the screen is from the last time the data was reset.
On Android
- Go to the ‘Settings’.
- Choose ‘Apps’.
- Go to ‘Manage Apps or Installed Apps’.
- Select ‘Discord’ from the list of apps mentioned.
- Tap on ‘Data Usage’.
- You can check the graphs showing the data usage by the app.
How to Minimize Data Usage on Discord?
Discord is one of the most popular apps used to strike up a conversation with your friends and family safely and easily. However, if you are looking for different ways to minimize your data usage, we have some suggestions. Here they are!
- Go to ‘User Settings’ (Icon at the bottom of the screen).
- Select ‘Text & Images’.
- In the tab ‘Display Images, Video & Locals’, disable –When posted as links to the chat/ When uploaded directly to Discord.
- Go to ‘Image Compression’ and enable ‘Auto Compress Images’.
- In the ‘Link Preview’, disable ‘Show preview info from links pasted in the chats’
- In the ‘user Settings’, go to ‘Notifications’ and disable ‘System Notifications’.
- Choose ‘User Settings’ and go to ‘Accessibility’, select ‘Stickers’ and tap on ‘Never Animate’
By modifying all these settings, you can reduce the data consumption significantly. Apart from these settings, you can also pause background apps and disable link previews to reduce data consumption.
Final Words
- So, how much data does Discord use?
- Does it consume more data on mobile phones?
- Is it possible to minimize data usage?
The answer to all these questions is simple!
The data usage by Discord depends on various factors like background applications, user settings, and number of people in the group. The good thing is that Discord uses less data than other messaging apps like Skype or WhatsApp. If the text messages are between two people, the data consumption is almost negligible, however, in the case of group chats where you share pictures and music, the data usage will be comparatively high!
Sharing music and streaming videos, voice calls and video calls will consume most data while data usage will be low if the number of people in the group is less. You can minimize the data usage by Discord by altering the user settings and restricting the link preview in the chats. You can also pause or disable background apps, animate stickers, and compress images.
Apart from all this, make sure to keep a tab on your data cap using an internet traffic monitoring app. Although Discord doesn’t use more data as compared to other popular messaging apps, it can still take up your data if you have a limited data plan.
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