How to Save and Reduce Data Costs on Instagram on Android or iPhone Mobiles

On Instagram, you can find daily a large number of photos and videos with interesting and fun content. At the end of the day, these publications usually consume a large part of your cell phone’s mobile data. If this has happened to you, no need to worry, Instagram has an option that allows you to save mobile data. In this tutorial, we will explain how to save and reduce the cost of data on Instagram.

How much mobile data is consumed on Instagram?

Viewing about 30 photos on an Instagram feed means spending about 15MB. The reality is that when we use Instagram, we view more than 30 photos. Some users can view up to 120 photos. If this is your case, you would be spending 60 MB, not counting the high consumption generated by the videos.

Stories and live shows are the ones that generate the most data consumption. For example, according to ProAndroid, Stories containing about 3 videos consume approximately 11 MB, and direct ones consume 10 MB per minute. If you do a live for 15 minutes, you will spend about 150 MB.

1. Log into the app. 
2. Once inside the main page, go to the lower right corner and click on your profile photo.
3. In your profile, you should go to the upper right corner and click on the three horizontal lines.
4. When a menu is displayed, select the “Configuration” option found at the bottom.
5. In the new menu, click on the “Account” option with the icon of a bust.
6. In the “Account” section, you will find several options, find and select “Use of cell phone data.”
7. You will immediately see two options on your cell phone screen that will allow you to use less data. The first option, “Saving data”  (on iPhone “Use less data”), allows Instagram videos not to load automatically to use less data. Activate this function by moving the switch to the right. You will notice that this option is active when the switch automatically changes to blue.
8. The second option, «High-resolution multimedia files,» allows you to choose when the files should be played in high resolution. For this, you have three options «Never» Instagram will not show you videos and images in high resolution, «Only WiFi,» the content in High resolution will only appear when you connect to WiFi, or “Cellular data + WiFi.” 

With these steps, Instagram allows its users to save mobile data by preventing images and videos from loading in high resolution. But you should understand that by activating these options, the experience when using Instagram with mobile data will be different because the photos and videos will be uploaded in a lower quality.

Tips to save mobile data when using Instagram:

• View the stories and videos only when you are connected to a WiFi network. Also, upload any content to your Instagram account when you are connected to WiFi.
• If you need to upload photos and videos with mobile data, lower the quality and weight to the maximum. That way, you will not have to spend too much mobile data. By using the original resolution, you will have to spend a lot of mobile data.
• If you want to view the publications of a specific user, look directly for their profile. Never look for its content among the publications of the users you follow because you will be consuming mobile data unnecessarily.
• For many users who do not have access to a WiFi network, it is practical to upload content from the PC, even browse from its web version, and view other users’ stories.
• Use the phone’s browser to check Instagram stories. That is, instead of opening your profile from the application, access Instagram using the browser. You will surely ask yourself, what is the difference if I am still using mobile data? When you open Instagram from the browser, the stories do not play automatically, as if it happens in the application. Rather, you can click on the stories that interest you and ignore those that are not of your interest.