Having a limit on data usage may not be fun. However, most of us have to deal with it. Many times our cellular data is used before we even had a chance to enjoy it and we wonder where it went. It’s useful to know what is using so much data so you can make it last longer. This blog will help you put an end to wasting data.

Let’s get right into it. Video streaming is the single biggest data hog people run into. If you like to watch a lot of videos on your phone and have a data limit, you may be in trouble. However, to save yourself some trouble, try not to watch videos in High Definition. Watching videos in HD can use 2 to 7 GB of data per hour.

Turn off auto updates. Even when you change the settings to only update when using Wi-Fi, these settings can be ignored very often. Backups and syncing can also use data without you knowing and it would be a good idea to only do them on Wi-Fi.

If you check your e-mails on your phone often it could be using some of your data without you knowing as well. You can go into your mail settings and set it to check your e-mails manually. Otherwise, your mail will check itself in the background automatically throughout the day or whatever time interval it is set to. This doesn’t waste too much of your data, but it is something that can be preventable.

When you are scrolling through your social media, videos may start to play automatically as you are going down your newsfeed. Auto video playback can be turned off in your settings and it’s a great way to save data. Once it plays the video automatically, it spends the data for the whole video even if you don’t end up finishing it.

All apps use data differently. Here’s a run-down of some apps that are known to drain your cellular data the fastest.

Movie streaming apps such as Netflix eat data fast. Netflix uses more data than Youtube and has been known to use 100 to 200MB for every 10 minutes of viewing.

Music apps such as Spotify and Pandora. Spotify is known to use more data than Pandora. However, PC World stated that 1 hour of listening to Pandora each day for a whole month will use right under 2GB of data.

Games run through data quickly as well due to the high quality and detailed graphics. Games with online multiplayer modes tend to use more data than normal.

Video-chatting apps like Google Hangouts and Skype are another heavy data hog. The more features they offer, the faster the data is used.

Social Media apps can use a lot of your data when uploading photos and videos. Viewing photos isn’t as bad, but uploading takes a lot more out of your data. So try to upload your content while on Wi-Fi. As mentioned before, the auto video playback will use data without you knowing so it is recommended to turn that feature off if you are watching your data usage.

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