Free tool · Data & IoT
Mobile data usage estimator
Estimate monthly data for travelers or connected devices from typical usage, then carry the result into a data quote.
Values marked [est.] are typical, not measurements of your device. Change any figure below.
Typical H.264 main stream at this resolution; H.265 roughly halves it.
- Data per device, per month
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- Usage tier
Event: under 5 GB a month. Active: 5 to 300 GB. Stream: 300 GB or more.
Indicative; calibrate with your own devices.
Fleet connectivity planner
Filled from the estimate above; change it if you have your own figure.
Hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) to choose several.
- Fleet total, per month
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Connectivity design to discuss
Copy it into the details of your quote request; the quote button already carries the product, countries and volume.
- Per day
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- Whole trip
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Volume only: the estimator never shows cost.
How this works and its limits
Runs in your browser: what you enter stays on your device and is never uploaded.
Estimates multiply typical usage per activity or per device type by how much each is used. Device presets come from our own device profiles; values marked as indicative should be calibrated with your own devices.
Trackers are reports a day times the data in each report, cameras are minutes of live view and event clips at a video bitrate, and job-based machines are hours in use at a data rate. Each preset adds a monthly allowance for firmware and configuration updates.
The estimator gives data volume only, never cost. Real usage varies with apps, firmware, video quality and how often devices report.
Data sources and licences
Operator names, brands and codes shown here are public reference data compiled from national regulators and other public sources. Their appearance does not indicate any partnership, endorsement, agreement or connectivity between unicomam.com and the named operators. All trademarks belong to their owners. Data is provided “as is” with no warranty; verify against the official source before relying on it for routing, billing or compliance decisions.
Regulatory information is for reference only and is not legal advice; check the regulator link and the “last verified” date.
How to estimate mobile data needs
Monthly data depends on what a device does and how often it does it. For a connected device, multiply the data of one action, such as a position report, a video clip or an hour of work, by how many times it happens in a month, then add an allowance for software updates. For a traveler, multiply the hours spent on maps, messaging, social media, video and calls by the typical data each uses per hour.
Most connected devices follow one of three patterns. Trackers and meters send small reports at a fixed interval, so the interval and the size of each report decide their volume; a report also carries protocol overhead, which is often larger than the position or reading itself. Cameras and dashcams send video, so the bitrate and the minutes of live view or event clips decide theirs. Job-based machines, such as spraying drones, docks or service robots, use data while they work, so hours in use and the work season decide theirs.
Video dominates the volume. A tracker reporting every few minutes uses megabytes a month; a camera streaming live view for an hour a day uses tens of gigabytes. Camera traffic is also mostly upload, so plans for cameras need to be sized for uplink rather than download, and continuous streaming is better served by a local profile or a dedicated line than by roaming.
Firmware images can be larger than a month of normal traffic, so a shared data pool across a fleet absorbs update days without changing every device's plan. Seasonal machines are the opposite case: their volume is concentrated in the work season and close to zero outside it.
An estimate is a starting point. Typical values differ from your device's firmware, report format and settings, so run a pilot and measure a month of real traffic before sizing a fleet. The fleet planner then multiplies the result by the number of devices and suggests the connectivity design to discuss, from a single roaming profile for a pilot to local profiles for devices that stay in one country for a long time.