7 Best Ways to Limit Cellular Data Usage on iPhone

Some apps and services on your iPhone may be data-hungry and leave you little or no mobile data right at the start of the monthly carrier plan. You are either left to use Wi-Fi for internet or spend more on data packets. Read on to learn how to limit cellular data usage on iPhone.

Using the tricks below, you can identify which apps and services are taking large amounts of cellular data on your phone. iOS also has some neat options to put the brakes on data consumption. Let’s check them out.

1. Check Data Consumption

Before we continue and show you how to limit cellular data usage on iPhone, you first need to find out which apps are consuming most of the data.

Apple provides a detailed breakdown of mobile data consumption on your iPhone. Here’s how to check this.

Stage 1: Open the Settings app on iPhone.

Step 2: Go to the Mobile Data menu.

Stage 3: Check your current data plan and you can browse the data consumed by every app to date in your carrier plan.

2. Disable Personal Hotspot

As you can see from the screenshots above, Personal Hotspot was the biggest factor behind cellular data consumption on iPhone.

When Personal Hotspot is enabled, all registered devices will automatically connect to your iPhone and absorb mobile data. You can turn off Personal Hotspot or change the password using the steps below.

Stage 1: Go to Personal Hotspot from the iPhone Settings menu.

Step 2: Disable the toggle from the menu below or tap the Wi-Fi password to change the password.

From now on, none of the registered devices will connect to your iPhone unless they have the new passcode.

3. Disable Mobile Data and Background Refresh for Apps

iPhone allows users to disable mobile data and background app refresh for all installed apps.

Using the first trick, you already know which apps are taking a giant pie from mobile data plans on iPhone. You can disable mobile data and background app refresh for these apps in the Settings menu.

Stage 1: Open Settings on iPhone and go to the apps menu.

Step 2: Open an app and disable the Mobile Data toggle from the menu below.

You can also disable Background App Refresh so that the app doesn’t waste mobile data in the background.

You should not disable mobile data for essential apps like WhatsApp. Otherwise, you will have difficulty in receiving messages on the platform.

4. Disable iCloud Photos on Mobile Data

This might be the biggest culprit behind consuming all mobile data on iPhone. If you have iCloud Photos backup enabled on mobile data, the Photos app will continue to upload new photos and media to the iCloud platform.

You have the option to disable iCloud Photos on Mobile Data. Here’s what you need to do.

Stage 1: Open iPhone Settings and go to Photos.

Step 2: Scroll down to Mobile Data.

Stage 3: Disable Mobile Data toggle in the menu below.

The Photos app will no longer use mobile data to upload media to the iCloud platform.

Alternatively, you can disable Mobile Data for Photos in Settings > Mobile Data.

5. Enable Low Data Mode

Low Data Mode helps reduce mobile data usage. When Low Data Mode is enabled, background tasks such as automatic updates and Photos sync are paused. Here’s how to use it.

Stage 1: Open Settings on iPhone, go to Mobile Data.

Step 2: Choose your data plan.

Stage 3: Activate the Low Data Mode toggle and you’re ready.

6. Preload Web Pages in Google Chrome

iOS now lets you change the default web browser on iPhone. If you use Google Chrome instead of Safari, you have the option to preload web pages in the browser.

When enabled, Chrome can use less mobile data and load web pages faster.

Open Google Chrome and go to Settings. Select Bandwidth and preload web pages on Wi-Fi.

7. Download Media Instead of Streaming

If you use streaming apps like Spotify, Amazon Music, Netflix or Prime Video, you must download songs and TV shows over Wi-Fi to watch later.

Don’t make it a habit to stream high-quality media over mobile data.

Put the Brakes on Cellular Data Usage on iPhone

Whenever possible, try using a Wi-Fi network on iPhone. Leave Cellular data for simple tasks like iMessage, WhatsApp or regular web browsing.