Amount Of Data Used By Nest Cam.

According to “Grand View Research” The global smart home security camera market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.7% from 2019 to 2027 to reach USD 11.9 billion by 2027.

This growth is not by accident but it’s due to the advantageous features that these devices offer.

Nest cameras are one of those security cams that can enhance home security and safety as it provides many features such as remote control and allow you to access the cam from your smartphone or tablets from anywhere.

It can also send you notifications when it detects something around your house, without forgetting that it’s weatherproof.

These cameras are dependent on the internet to record video, send you notifications, connect to your smartphone, and so on, and it’s a video-enabled device, so it will use much more data compared to other smart home gadgets such as lighting and thermostat.

Nest cam use between 18GB-380GB per month but it’s not easy to know the exact amount because it depends on the resolution of the video to stream and how many times you access your cam and the place where the cam was placed (if you put your cam in an empty street, it will use less than when placed in a high traffic area).

In this article, we’re going to show you in detail how Nest cam uses data, and how the amount of data consumed changes when the settings are modified.

How much data does nest cam use?

As we said before the Nest cam it’s a video-enabled device so it will use much more data compared to other connected gadgets like your smart speaker or door locks.

So based on this table we’re going to show you the average and the maximum amount of data you may use in a month depending on the video quality and activity in the street.

Video Quality	360p SD resolution	720p HD resolution	1080p Full HD resolution
Typical monthly data usage	30 GB	120 GB	300 GB
Monthly average data usage	18GB	60GB	140GB
Monthly maximum data usage (high traffic street)	48GB	160GB	380GB

Now let’s explore the factor that determines how much data we’re going to consume.

How much activity your camera sees: If you put your camera in a high traffic street where a lot of people pass and cars your camera will detect a lot of sounds and motion so it will use much more data compared to when it’s placed in quiet areas where only a few people pass by.

The quality and bandwidth you choose: Of course when you’re using high video resolution your camera will use more bandwidth to upload video, The lower the video quality, the fewer data the camera uses.

You can adjust the video quality on your Home app or on your Nest app, and here’s how:

Home app:

• Go to the home app.
• Then select your camera name.
• Go to settings.
• choose video.
• Under “Video quality,” choose Max or High.

Nest app:

• Go to the Nest app.
• Then select your camera name.
• Go to settings.
• Select “quality and bandwidth”.
• Slide the toggle to change the video quality for your camera.

When your camera streams live video: Newer Nest cam like Nest cam (battery or wired) will only stream video when it’s recording detected events, so the fewer events it detects the fewer data will be consumed and vice versa.

While some Nest cams stream video whenever it’s turned on, so the amount of data used with these cams will be higher than the newer models.

So based on these factors you can determine how much you’re going to use According to Google the amount of data that can be consumed by their cam will be as the following:

• Nest Cam (battery): from 200GB to 300GB.
• Nest Cam IQ Indoor, Nest Cam IQ Outdoor: from 100GB to 400GB.
• Nest Cam Indoor, Nest Cam Outdoor, and Dropcam: 30GB to 300GB.

How to reduce the amount of data used by your cam?

When you’re on a limited plan it’s important to reduce your monthly data usage and here are three simple tricks suggested by Google to do it:

• Reduce the video resolution to lower the amount of data used when uploading a video.
• Use camera schedules to switch on and off automatically.
• Use the Home & Away feature in the Home app and the Nest app to turn your camera on and off automatically.

How much data do your Nest and Home app use?

Of course, when you have a Nest cam you need to download the Nest or Home app to receive notifications and access your cam while you’re away.

These apps will also consume data and the amount of data consumed will depend on how often the app is used throughout the month.

You can look on your phone under the cellular settings to see how much it has been used, or install an app on your phone that shows you live bandwidth.

The Nest and Home app will use data when you let it open all the time so make sure to close it when you don’t need it.

Sometimes these apps need an update and these updates are essential for speed and security but they will consume additional data.

Final words.

So the amount of data used by your Nest cam will depend on the factors cited above, the quantity of data will change every month some months you use less and others you consume more, I recommend you avoid low-quality video because you’ll not recognize the people that come to your house.