Free calculator · runs in your browser
How much data does your house actually use?
Toggle on what happens on your WiFi, set the hours, and get a real GB-per-month number — then see how it stacks up against Starlink and hotspot data caps. Especially useful for Carova and Ocracoke households, and rentals that sleep twelve.
What happens on your WiFi?
Would you fit under a data cap?
Not sure what plan fits your house or rental?
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What actually uses the most data
4K video is the hog — about 7 GB per hour, so one 4K TV running 2 hours a night burns ~420 GB a month on its own. HD is about 3 GB/hr, video calls ~1 GB/hr, and music barely registers at ~0.1 GB/hr. If a cap is looming, dropping streaming quality from 4K to HD is the single biggest lever, and most people can’t tell on a smaller TV.
Do security cameras eat data? (yes — upload)
Cloud cameras are the sneaky one because they use upload, the direction most plans are weakest in. Event-based cameras (Ring-style) sip ~3–10 GB a month each, but continuous 24/7 cloud recording runs roughly ~150 GB per camera per month of upload at consumer cloud quality — and full-quality local NVR recording is heavier still (see our camera storage calculator). Four continuous cloud cameras is over half a terabyte of upload before you’ve streamed a thing.
The OBX angle: Starlink households, watch the cameras
In Carova, on Ocracoke, and anywhere else Starlink is the only good option, camera upload is the first thing to check when usage looks high. Starlink Residential has unlimited standard data (2026), but very heavy users can be deprioritized at peak hours — and Roam tiers have priority-data buckets that continuous cameras will drain quietly. Event-based recording or local storage (an NVR) keeps cameras off your data budget entirely.