If you’re working from home on a limited data plan, you may be curious how data Teams consumes. This information is crucial if you plan to undergo digital conferencing, meetings, and calls. A delayed presentation will do better than an abruptly ended one.
The data consumed by a call in Teams is dependent on the bandwidth Teams is permitted. For example, the minimum bandwidth of 10Mbps would consume 4.5MB of data over 1 hour; however, the “best performance” bandwidth rate of 76Mbps would cost you 34.2MB.
| Bandwidth level | Process | Data consumption (MB) |
| Minimum bandwidth | Audio call | 4.5 |
| Microsoft’s recommended bandwidth | Audio call | 26.1 |
| Microsoft’s best performance bandwidth | Audio call | 34.2 |
| Minimum bandwidth | Video call | 67.5 |
| Microsoft’s recommended bandwidth | Video call | 675 |
| Microsoft’s best performance bandwidth | Video call | 1,800 |
The table above illustrates the data consumption you’ll experience when participating in Teams’ one-to-one audio and video calls. If you’d like to learn more, consider reading the rest of the post, wherein I will discuss meetings and screen sharing. Each section features a simple table like the one I have shown above— this is for your benefit.
If you’re looking for something specific, try the links below. You can use the following links to access relevant content quickly:
- How much data is used during a call/meeting in Teams
- How much data is used when screen sharing in Teams
- Blog post recap
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How much data is used during a call/meeting in Teams
We can attribute the amount of data you consume to your tasks’ demand for bandwidth and how much you can allocate. In short, if you’re administering the minimum amount of bandwidth required, you’re unlikely to consume much data; however, this will negatively affect the quality of your digital calls, meetings, and screen share presentations. In contrast, permitting a more significant amount of bandwidth will increase the quality of your experience at the cost of more data.
Data consumption overview
Below, I have provided three tables illustrating how different calls consume data with their bandwidth requirements. First, I will be going over one-to-one audio calls, meetings, video calls, and meetings with video input.
One-to-one audio calls and meetings (without video input)
One-to-one audio calls share the exact bandwidth requirements as meetings; however, additional data losses may occur should several or more participants join in.
| Bandwidth level | Data consumption (MB) |
| Minimum bandwidth (10Kbps) | 4.5 |
| Microsoft’s recommended bandwidth (58Kbps) | 26.1 |
| Microsoft’s best performance bandwidth (76Kbps) | 34.2 |
One-to-one video calls
One-to-one video calls require more bandwidth because you must consistently transmit several frames.
| Bandwidth level | Data consumption (MB) |
| Minimum bandwidth (150Kbps) | 67.5 |
| Microsoft’s recommended bandwidth (1,500Kbps) | 675 |
| Microsoft’s best performance bandwidth (4,000Kbps) | 1,800 |
Meetings with video input
Much like one-to-one video calls, meetings with video input take a great amount of bandwidth compared to meetings without video input.
| Bandwidth level | Data consumption (MB) |
| Minimum bandwidth (150Kbps) | 67.5 |
| Microsoft’s recommended bandwidth (1,500Kbps) | 1,800 |
| Microsoft’s best performance bandwidth (4,000Kbps) | 1,800 |
How much data is used when screen sharing in Teams
You can use the screen share function to host a digital presentation; though, I tend to use the feature to demonstrate actions on my side of the screen. Regardless of what you use the feature for, you’ll want to learn how much data you’re using.
Data consumption overview
Below, you will find a table that outlines the screen sharing’s impact on your data. As you can see, screen sharing is more impactful than an audio call but less impactful than a video call.
Screen sharing in a one-to-one call
| Bandwidth level | Data consumption (MB) |
| Minimum bandwidth (200Kbps) | 90 |
| Microsoft’s recommended bandwidth (1,500Kbps) | 675 |
| Microsoft’s best performance bandwidth (4,000Kbps) | 1,800 |
Screen sharing in a meeting
Screen sharing in a one-to-one call or a meeting will use lots of data, even with minimum bandwidth usage.
| Bandwidth level | Data consumption (MB) |
| Minimum bandwidth (250Kbps) | 112.5 |
| Microsoft’s recommended bandwidth (2,500Kbps) | 1125 |
| Microsoft’s best performance bandwidth (4,000Kbps) | 1,800 |
Blog post recap
Like all internet-dependant applications, Microsoft Teams consumes data. You will find that understanding exactly how much data Microsoft Teams uses is challenging. The difficulty arises when considering how your available bandwidth relates to the spent data. Networks that permit less bandwidth will notice a drop in quality and lower data losses; however, you can say the opposite for networks that allocate more bandwidth. Such networks will produce a greater quality experience at the cost of spending data faster.
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