Mobile hotspots function like wireless routers, using your cell phone plan’s cellular data to connect other devices to the internet. The more user activity, the more data the hotspot uses to power it. Considering that, the average amount of data hotspotting uses depends on the user. In general, a hotspot uses anywhere between 60MB and 900MB of data per hour, depending on the activity.
In this guide, we’ll explain how much hotspot data specific activities use and suggest some cell phone plans that include enough data for hotspotting. In addition, we’ll break down how to use your phone as a hotspot and how to manage the costs associated with it.
How much data do hotspots use?
The amount of data hotspots use depends on how the hotspots are used, but there’s a simple concept that holds true with data usage: the more you ask your phone to load, the more data you’re asking it to use.
Basic activities–like web browsing, emailing, or using apps like Facebook and Google Maps–use less data per hour, with all of those activities burning less than 60MB per hour. More data-intensive activities–like streaming music on Spotify, scrolling through Instagram, watching Netflix and YouTube, and video-conferencing on Zoom–can use over 900MB per hour.
The table below breaks these numbers down further, showing you how much each activity uses on average and, in the process, how much of your monthly data you can expect to use if you turn on your hotspot.
Mobile hotspot data usage
| Activity | Data per 30 min | Data per hour |
|---|---|---|
| Web browsing | Approx. 30MB | Approx. 60MB |
| Less than 1MB | Less than 1MB | |
| Streaming music | Up to 75MB | Up to 150MB |
| Netflix | From 125MB | From 250MB |
| Approx. 40MB | Approx. 80MB | |
| YouTube | Approx. 150MB | Approx. 300MB |
| Approx. 360MB | Approx. 720MB | |
| Zoom | Approx. 450MB | Approx. 900MB |
| Google Maps | Less than 2.5MB | Less than 5MB |
Hotspots and data limits
Tethering, another name for hotspotting, essentially gives you portable Wi-Fi. It’s an incredible convenience, but it’s not magic: the data used to power your hotspot comes from your cell phone plan’s monthly data chunk. If you’re not careful, using a mobile hotspot might lead you to max out your data, leaving you with throttled speeds or overage fees.
Let’s take a look at what you can do to conserve your cellular data and still get the experience of Wi-Fi on-the-go that tethering provides.
Monitor hotspot data usage
The easiest way to ensure you don’t exceed your data limit while hotspotting is to monitor your monthly data usage in the account on your carrier’s website or in their app. Bell, Rogers, Telus, Freedom Mobile, and others provide straightforward reports in their respective apps, making it easy for customers to track usage and make sure they’re never risking exceeding their data limit.
Use Wi-Fi hotspots
Sometimes you can get free mobile Wi-Fi without using your own data for a hotspot. The major cell phone carriers in Canada offer their customers free Wi-Fi hotspots, available in various locations across the country.
Rogers offers over 100,000 Wi-Fi hotspots at coffee shops, malls, restaurants and more, with most of them located in urban centres in the country’s southern half.
Telus has over 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots and is adding more every month. Telus customers can access the OptikTV app while using the hotspots, giving them the ability to watch and record their favourite shows on-the-go.
Freedom Mobile boasts over 100,000 hotspots across Canada, providing a wealth of free alternatives to launching your own personal hotspot.
SaskTel and Bell also offer Wi-Fi hotspots, though their coverage maps are much smaller: Bell offers 4,000 hotspots across the country in participating McDonald’s, Chapters Indigo, and Tim Hortons locations, while SaskTel’s selectWi-Fi 2,500 hubs are limited to southern Saskatchewan.
Best mobile hotspot data plans
Cell phone plans from Canada’s carriers allow for mobile hotspots at no additional cost to customers, though hotspotting uses data from their monthly allotment. While many cell phone plans in the U.S. provide additional data specifically for hotspots, we don’t have that luxury in the Great North.
If you’re looking to consistently use a mobile hotspot without exceeding your monthly data limit, we recommend an unlimited plan. Unlimited plans in Canada aren’t truly unlimited, but they do provide customers will unlimited connectivity and no overage fees.
With that in mind, here some of the best mobile hotspot data plans in Canada.
Rogers | Infinite Essential plan–Best for remote workers
Rogers’ Infinite Essential plan provides 120GB of shareable full-speed 5G data. That should be more than enough for hotspotting in addition to your typical phone use, even if you’re hosting work meetings on Zoom or collaborating on Google Docs and Slack.
If you do exceed 120GB for the month, your speed will be throttled to 512Kbps. That will make tethering painfully slow, but it’ll keep you connected for the rest of the month–and it also means you won’t be charged an overage fee.
Rogers’ plan bears a striking resemblance to Bell’s Essential 120GB and Telus’ Ultimate 120 5G+ plans–even the names are similar! (Hey, we never suggested the Big Three did much to distinguish themselves as individuals.) Still, we prefer Rogers’ plan because of the carrier’s highly-rated nationwide network, which was deemed “Best in Data” in a 2023 report from the telecom research firm umlaut.
Rogers Infinite Essential Plan
| Carrier | Rogers |
|---|---|
| Data | Unlimited Data |
| Type | No Contract |
| Total Price |
$80 per month
(after Auto-Pay discount)
|
| View Details |
Freedom Mobile | 5G Unlimited 60GB CA-US plan–Best for travelers
If you’re looking for a cheaper unlimited plan, Freedom Mobile’s 5G Unlimited 60GB CA-US plan is a great alternative to the pricier plans from Rogers, Bell, and Telus. We think this is an especially good choice for travelers who might need the occasional hotspot while traveling in the States but don’t want to pay the monthly costs of a more expensive plan, like Rogers’ Infinite Essential.
The plan provides 60GB of full-speed 5G data–half of Rogers’ Infinite Essential plan, but still enough to occasionally use your phone as a mobile hotspot without risking throttling. That’s a good thing, too, because the slow down from Freedom is more severe than the Big Three–if you exceed your 60GB of data, speeds will be throttled to 256Kbps.
Public Mobile | Unlimited Canada-US Talk + Text + 60GB plan–Best for casual users
Hotspots are a convenient tool, but they’re not essential for most people. If you’re someone who likes the ability to tether when the Wi-Fi goes out but doesn’t rely on hotspotting for work or travel, this Public Mobile plan is ideal plan for you.
The plan has slightly less full-speed 5G data than Freedom’s CA-US plan, but it runs on Telus’ nationwide network, which is over twice the size of Freedom’s. That kind of connectivity will ensure you’ll be able to use your cellular data to hotspot throughout most of the country.
How to turn on your mobile hotspot
Now that you know how much data a hotspot uses, you’re probably looking to actually use your own. Good news: turning your phone into a mobile hotspot is easy. The exact steps vary depending on your phone and operating system, but most phones require just a few simple steps. Here’s how to enable your personal hotspot on an iPhone and an Android.
Turn on hotspot for iPhone
- Go to your phone’s Settings.
- Tap Personal Hotspot.
- Toggle the switch next to Allow Others to Join to the “on” position.
Turn on hotspot for Android
- Go to your phone’s Settings menu.
- Tap Network or Connections & sharing.
- Tap Personal hotspot or Wi-Fi hotspot. (On some devices, you’ll first need to tap on Tethering.)
- Toggle the Personal hotspot switch to the “on” position.
Hotspot data use: FAQs
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