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How much usage does watching a video on YouTube take? Does it depend on the length of the video? The quality?

I'm trying to figure this out because I use a lot of online tutorials at work, and I don't want to suck the download limit dry before anyone else has a chance to use it.

For reference, the videos I watch are generally 30 mins - 1hr, at 360p (standard).

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  • 'How heavy is a piece of string?' - The answer really depends on the length, format and resolution of your videos.
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 5:56
  • @JourneymanGeek have added length and quality for reference.
    – Ben
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 6:01
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    Can you clarify "download limit"? If the data plan from the service provider has a monthly allotment of data bytes, the answer will be different than if you are talking about bandwidth limits (how much data everyone can get through the connection in a given time). Quality will affect both, length won't affect bandwidth. Do you know what bandwidth is available? How many people will be watching videos at the same time?
    – fixer1234
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 6:16
  • @fixer1234 sorry didn't realise I put both of those terms in the title originally. I was looking for how much data watching videos uses, not the bandwidth.
    – Ben
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 1:30

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It depends heavily on the length, quality and file format of the video. You can see the total amount of data used on any given video by right-clicking on the video to bring up this menu:

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Then, you can click Stats for nerds and bring up this prompt:

enter image description here

The Bandwidth option is what you're looking for. It shows a graph, along with real-time data of the current amount of bandwith being used.

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