How Much Data Does a Zoom Meeting Use?
Whether we like it or not, Zoom has pretty much become a part of our daily lives. In fact, I have to hop on a Zoom call in about 20 minutes, so let’s answer this question quickly. Just kidding (but I really do have the meeting).
To avoid your face freezing midconversation and your voice suddenly remixing into a weird Daft Punk song, you’ll want sufficient internet data for your Zoom conversations to run smoothly. Let’s answer how much data does a Zoom meeting use.
Per Zoom’s website, here are all the internet bandwidth requirements for different activities on Zoom
For 1:1 video calling:
- 600kbps (up/down) for high quality video
- 1.2 Mbps (up/down) for 720p HD video
- Receiving 1080p HD video requires 1.8 Mbps (up/down)
- Sending 1080p HD video requires 1.8 Mbps (up/down)
For group video calling:
- 800kbps/1.0Mbps (up/down) for high quality video
- For gallery view and/or 720p HD video: 1.5Mbps/1.5Mbps (up/down)
- Receiving 1080p HD video requires 2.5mbps (up/down)
- Sending 1080p HD video requires 3.0 Mbps (up/down)
For screen sharing only (no video thumbnail): 50–75kbps
- For screen sharing with video thumbnail: 50–150kbps
- For audio VoiP: 60–80kbps
For Zoom Phone: 60–100kbps
- Recommended bandwidth for webinar attendees:
Breaking down Zoom data usage
That was a lot of technical jargon above, so let’s make this information a bit more digestible. Here’s a breakdown of internet speed measurements.
- 1 megabit (MB) = 1000 kilobytes (Kb)
- 1 megabyte (MB) = 8 megabits (Mb)
- 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1,000 megabytes (MB)
Now that we’ve got an idea of the measurements, let’s take a closer look at how much data Zoom uses depending upon the quality of your stream, and how many people are in the meeting.
| Quality | Download | Upload | Total |
| High | 270 MB/hr. | 270 MB/hr. | 540 MB/hr. |
| 720p | 540 MB/hr. | 540 MB/hr. | 1.08 GB/hr. |
| 1080p | 810 MB/hr. | 810 MB/hr. | 1.62 GB/hr. |
You use somewhere between 540 MB and 1.62 GB per hour (between 9 MB and 27 MB per minute) for a 1:1 Zoom meeting, depending upon the streaming quality.
| Quality | Download | Upload | Total |
| High | 450 MB/hr. | 360 MB/hr. | 810 MB/hr. |
| 720p | 675 MB/hr. | 675 MB/hr. | 1.35 GB/hr. |
| 1080p | 1.2 GB/hr. | 1.2 GB/hr. | 2.4 GB/hr. |
Your Zoom data usage jumps up with more people on the call. Group Zoom meetings take up somewhere between 810 MB and 2.4 GB per hour, or between 13.5 MB and 40 MB per minute.
To put those numbers in context, take a look at how much data is used for other everyday activities.
| Activity | Amount of data used |
| 4K video streaming | 5.85 GB/hr. |
| HD video streaming | 2.5 GB/hr. |
| SD video streaming | 0.7 GB/hr. |
| Audio streaming | 72 MB/hr. |
| Uploading one image to social media | 5 MB/photo |
| Sending emails (without attachment) | 20 KB/email |
| Sending emails (with standard attachment) | 300 KB/email |
| Online gaming | 12 MB/hr. |
| Viewing a web page | 1 MB/pg. |
Based on AT&T data calculator estimates. Amounts may vary.
Zoom streaming is fairly comparable to normal video streaming, but since upload speeds are part of the equation, a Zoom stream does take up more data than streaming Netflix.
Struggling with your Zoom calls?
If your internet is having a hard time keeping up with Zoom calls, then you might want to see what other options are available in your area. You might be paying too much for a lousy internet connection, and there might be some better options for you. Our internet expert Catherine recommends Xfinity internet as the best internet provider.
You can find out if Xfinity internet is available in your neighborhood by entering your ZIP code below. Even if you don’t have Xfinity in your area, you can enter your ZIP and find out what internet providers are in your area.