8

I am wondering if anyone can tell me the average bandwidth usage for a Skype to Skype call (PC to PC) per hour (voice only), as well as calls that would include screen sharing. I have tried searching around, but seems people are getting the units of measurements mixed up i.e. kbps/KB; mbps/MB. So I'm a little confused. I'm not very good at converting the units of measurement either >.>

I do know how to check the usage WHILE on a call, but I cannot do that right now. I would just like to know the average usage.

My boyfriend and I use Skype daily,on average between 2 to 8hrs per call. Most of the time we are playing a game together while chatting; sometimes we will share screens. He claims that we used 16GB within a 3 day period. As I said, we would play games together, sometimes screen share, browse the internet, watch videos all while talking on Skype.

I'm no expert, but 16GB seems a bit exaggerated, does it not? o.O

Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Improve this question
5
  • Further to the answer below a general YouTube video can be up to 100mb per 3-4 minutes for high quality and watching a film online can be anywhere from 1gb per film for SD content up to 3gb+per film for HD content. It very quickly builds up. Online games are mostly low bandwidth for general gameplay, but some games can download new content as you play.
    – Mokubai ♦
    Feb 23, 2015 at 10:37
  • Thank you, Mokubai, for the additional information. It's hard to fathom that these things can add up to so much and so quickly, but I guess they do. I just recently switched to an unlimited internet plan for this reason, I just never realized how fast it can add up.
    – honeychyld
    Feb 23, 2015 at 11:02
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat.
    – Lilienthal
    Feb 24, 2015 at 12:35
  • Possible duplicate of How much data (MB) does Skype consume in a 1 minute call?
    – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com
    Apr 18, 2016 at 10:35
  • Note also that an ISP's advertised speed not only is usually faster than anyone really gets, but also can be reduced greatly by conditions outside of the IUSP's control. (For some numbers, see my comment on apple.stackexchange.com/questions/272704/…)
    – WGroleau
    Feb 15, 2017 at 21:10

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
8

From what I've read on Skype faq recommended speed for calling is 100kbps, from that we can calculate bandwidth usage per hour.
100kbps*60*60 = 360000 kb(kilobits)/h = 43.9453125 MB(megabytes)/h

44MB*8h(max)*3days = 1056MB ~ 1GB

Video calling/Screen sharing requires 3x bigger bandwidth but that's not even close to 16GB!

But if you were browsing the internet and watching videos while chatting 16GB seems reasonable.

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    Thank you, Davidenko,for clarifying things for me.I did some calculations,and we roughly had about 50hrs of skype time within those three days.So according to your calculations it does come to about 1-2 GBs of usage. I guess pretty much everything you do on the internet takes up bandwidth,even small things like opening an email.I know screensharing would take up more, but still 16GB seems exaggerated for JUST our calls. Seems he forgot to take into consideration the other things that were going on,like browsing the web,downloading games,etc.He can't blame it all on our calls lol!
    – honeychyld
    Feb 23, 2015 at 9:18
  • @shortstheory Please read the answer again, it's 300kbps for Video calling/Screen sharing and on Skype's faq page says 1.5Mbps for Video calling(HD)!
    – Davidenko
    Feb 23, 2015 at 17:37
3

Use Skype's detailed call information to see the average bandwidth used. For voice calls, it is usually pretty low, around 2-8kbps, video calls will of course use more bandwidth.

If you want to know how much bandwidth Skype uses per hour in your specific case, just use any internet traffic monitor apps to see how much bandwidth Skype uses and talk for a few hours to get more precise data.

Or just use Windows' standard Resource Monitor utility. Press Start button, type resmon and hit Enter. Select the Network tab and you will see how much bandwidth Skype is currently using:

As you can see, my voice calls use a total of ~9700 bytes per second (~3500 B/s upload, ~6200 B/s download).

Improve this answer
2
  • Is this monitor accessible on Skype's website? It does not seem to exist in the IOS app.
    – WGroleau
    Feb 14, 2017 at 22:04
  • Never mind. I see it's a Windows app separate from Skype.
    – WGroleau
    Feb 15, 2017 at 21:06
0

tl;dr — audio-only Skype will usually have good quality at 400 kbps. Video will be intolerable at 128 kbps.

For what it's worth, I just used Skype twice on this cell-enabled iPad. MB used by the Skype app only:

1.3 to launch, get a password reset, and exit.

2.6 to launch, log in, turn off notifications and automatic video settings, send a contact request, do one test call, and exit.

Audio-only. For enough bandwidth to do video by cell, I have to go outside and get away from any buildings. And one Chinese lesson will use up my entire month's data quota.

Update: I received no video, but I did have camera enabled. And I called my parents, 9:37, for 5.3 MB.

Update #2: I had a Chinese lesson via Skype, duration 49:17. Teacher in Foshan, China on computer. Me on iPad via cellular Orange, with signal strength 4/5, service 4G. Skype used only 385 MB, or about 1000 kbps. But the video was unacceptable. Constantly pausing (without interrupting audio), and at one point, completely froze until we disconnected and reconnected.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .