Sizing
How much data do you need for a trip?
Maps, messages and photos are light; video calls and uploads are heavy. Roughly what a gigabyte buys, the one-gigabyte-a-day rule, and when a top-up beats a bigger plan.
Updated 2026-11-13
What a gigabyte roughly buys
These are rough averages, not promises; your apps and your phone decide the real number. One gigabyte is about 330 photos posted to Instagram, about 6 hours of video calls home, about 6 minutes of 4K video uploaded, roughly 17,000 messages, 200 hours of maps, or 14 hours of music streaming.
The heavy things are video: calling home on video for an hour a day, uploading clips, or streaming shows in the hotel instead of using its wifi. The light things are everything else.
The one-gigabyte-a-day rule
Most people on a normal holiday, with hotel wifi in the evenings, use between half a gigabyte and a gigabyte a day. A 10 GB plan for two weeks is enough for most; a 20 GB plan is for people who work on the road, share a hotspot with a laptop, or video call a lot. We would rather sell you the 20 GB. We would rather still that you did not need it.
Hotspot and top-ups
Every plan allows a hotspot. Sharing with a laptop or a mate’s phone counts against the same data, and laptops are hungrier than phones.
If you run out, a top-up adds data to the same eSIM with nothing to reinstall. Buying small and topping up later is a fine strategy if you are unsure. We nudge you before you run out, because we would like to sell you more.
Questions
Is 10 GB enough for two weeks?
For most people, yes: maps, messages, photos and some video, with wifi at the hotel. Heavy video calling or hotspotting a laptop wants 20 GB.
Does a hotspot use more data?
It uses the same data, but a laptop uses more of it than a phone does. Video on a laptop is the thing to watch.