In today’s world, many internet service providers provide unlimited data consumption, however there are a few that restrict their customers to a maximum of 10GB per month.
Knowing how much bandwidth every connected gadget in your house is using is a good idea if you are on one of these low data limit internet plans. This will help you avoid an unexpected cost and keep you inside the limit.
Use of Alexa’s bandwidth
Alexa, on average, consumes 36MB of bandwidth every day (252MB per week / 1.08GB per month). Assuming the following daily consumption: Music streaming, two smart home commands, a weather request, and a question were all completed in 30 minutes.
Every day, this 36MB data average is broken down into these three categories:
| Alexa Command | Data Usage |
|---|---|
| “Alexa, turn on downstairs lights” | 5 kB |
| “Alexa, turn off downstairs lights” | 5 kB |
| “Alexa, what’s the weather today?” | 138 kB |
| “Alexa, when does the NFL season start?” | 240 kB |
| daily background usage, no commands | 7.244 MB |
| “Alexa, play Jack Johnson radio from Pandora” | 28.368 MB |
| Total daily data usage | 36 MB |
| Total weekly data usage (36 MB x 7 days) | 252 MB |
| Total monthly data usage (36 MB x 30 days) | 1.08 GB |
How Alexa’s data consumption is calculated
Using my TP-Link Archer router’s sophisticated traffic monitoring settings, I was able to compute the actual data use for each Alexa “command” stated above.
Please read my article on the Best Smart Home Router if you haven’t already! My smart home router is the TP-Link Archer, and it’s one of the finest affordable routers on the market. Check see the pricing on Amazon.)
Using these settings, I was able to identify and monitor my Amazon Alexa.
My first step was to identify my Alexa’s MAC address.
Think of the MAC address as an alphanumeric code that can only be used once. One may be found on any smart gadget in your house.
Open the Alexa app, click on “Devices” at the bottom, and then “Echo & Alexa” at the top. This MAC address may be found there.
Next, go to your Alexa device and pick “About” from the drop-down menu.
You should be able to view the MAC address from this point forth.
My TP-Link router had a traffic log, and discovering the MAC address was as easy as searching for it.
Is Alexa always using bandwidth?
When you’re not using Alexa, she’s still using bandwidth.
After identifying my Alexa’s MAC address, I was able to do this test.
For the following 12 hours, I simply deleted Alexa’s data use from the TP-Link traffic monitoring record and did not use Alexa at all.
As long as Alexa was “inactive,” it used 3.622.2 MB of bandwidth.
When Alexa is “off,” it consumes 7.24 MB of bandwidth every single day.
Even though this is a very little quantity of data, it has an impact on overall bandwidth use, thus it’s important to be aware of it.
What Alexa command consumes the most data?
Playing music on Alexa consumes the greatest bandwidth, as can be seen from the statistics.
Streaming Pandora for 30 minutes resulted in a data use of 28.368 MB.
Although this is a little bit of data, it may pile up over time.
Let’s imagine you listen to three hours of music a day instead of 30 minutes. About 170 MB each day or 5.1 GB per month is what you’d expect.
For the vast majority of us, this is a non-issue and not even worth contemplating.
You should be aware, though, if you’re one of the unfortunate few who have an internet plan with a data limit of only 10 GB.
The most popular Alexa command
Surveyed smart speaker users in 2018 by Venture Beat to see how often and for what reason they were using their smart speakers.
The majority of individuals use their smart speaker numerous times a day, according to the findings.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to us smart home users. Throughout the day, we utilize our smart speakers to switch on and off the lights.
As more and more people have smart speakers in their homes, I believe this tendency has only become stronger in the last few years.
Music was also revealed to be the most popular use case for smart speakers in a poll.
More than 75% of users selected music as their primary activity.
You can see why people like listening to music via their smart speakers.
When you’re in the mood to listen to music, Google Assistant and Alexa make it quite easy to do so.
How concerned should I be about Alexa’s data consumption?
When it comes to your monthly internet data use, 99 percent of you don’t have to worry about Alexa.
My heartfelt sympathies go out to the remaining 1%.
Having to worry about mobile phone use on a monthly basis is one thing. Internet consumption at home is something that I can’t picture dealing with at all.
Look through your internet plan information to determine if you have any type of data limit.
Most of the time, the limit is set at either zero or one terabyte. There is a LOT of info in a terabyte.
It’s OK if that’s your “cap.” It would take even the most hardcore Netflix users to reach 300 GB of data use.
In most circumstances, however, even for those with modest data limits (say, 10 – 50 GB), you may continue to use your internet even if speeds are considerably decreased.
Conclusion
In terms of bandwidth, Amazon Alexa consumes roughly 1 GB of data every month.
Even when your Alexa is “off,” it still consumes a little amount of bandwidth.
If you’re concerned about Alexa’s data use, consider limiting the amount of music you stream.
Alexa’s bandwidth usage isn’t an issue for 99 percent of consumers.
Be aware of how much Alexa you’re using if you have a data limit on your internet service and you’ll have no problem!!