Chetnet Internet Data Usage Calculator

Some Internet Service Providers have bandwidth 'caps' or usage limits on their services. The cap means you can only download (receive) and in some cases, upload (send), a certain amount of data over a period of time, typically per month.

You can use the Data Usage Calculator below to calculate an estimate of your monthly data or bandwidth usage for your Internet connection. You can break your usage of each item down by day, month and/or week. This should help you to work out your monthly bandwidth requirements and ensure you select the appropriate product from an Internet Service Provider.

For assistance or to give feedback about this calculator, please post a message in this thread at Chetnet.

Usage Pattern

Need to add custom items to help your calculate your bandwidth usage? Then use the advanced version of the Chetnet Data Usage Calculator. The advanced version allows you to enter custom items to help you improve the accuracy of your bandwidth estimate.

Category	Item	Per Day	Per Week	Per Month	Mbytes Consumed
Email Received	Standard Email				0
	Email with attachments				0
Email Sent	Standard Email				0
	Email with attachments				0
Browsing	Hours spent surfing				0
Downloads	4 Minute MP3				0
	Music Video (eg AVI or MPG)				0
	Small Software Update				0
	Medium Software Update				0
	Large Software Update				0
	CD Equivalent				0
	Average Word Document				0
	Large Compressed Images				0
Uploads	4 Minute MP3				0
	Music Video (eg AVI or MPG)				0
	CD Equivalent				0
	Average Word Document				0
	Large Compressed Images				0
Messaging	Hours instant messaging (e.g. AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger) 1				0
	Hours chatting via VOIP (e.g. Skype) 2				0
Streaming	Hours listening to 64k Audio				0
	Hours watching 256k Video				0
Gaming	Hours playing a PC or Console online				0

¹ = Instant messaging consumption rates vary greatly depending on how heavy the service is used making it hard for us to calculate a good estimate of bandwidth consumption. The figures used for calculating instant messaging usage are based on a single conversation with no file transfers. Bandwidth consumption when idle is minimal so only count the number of hours you are actually chatting using IM.

² = VOIP services are rate-adaptive, this means the bandwidth consumption changes depending on the conditions and thus making it hard for us to calculate a good estimate of bandwidth consumption. Only count the number of hours you are chatting using VOIP do not include 'idle' time.

This internet data usage calculator is © Copyright Chetnet (www.chetnet.co.uk) / Ben Cheetham 2005 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Please also note, the Chetnet Internet Data Usage Calculator is an estimating tool, and Chetnet takes no responsibility for the absolute accuracy of data produced. The figures used to estimate your data consumption are based on averages and are not specific to the Virgin Media broadband Internet service.

The Chetnet Internet Data Usage Calculator is being hosted by Ben Cheetham on behalf of Chetnet.