That doesn’t mean FaceTime calls won’t ever cost you, though, since, without Wi-Fi, FaceTime needs to use your data plan to connect to the internet. There are a number of factors to understand about FaceTime, so let’s take a look at what you need to know about this video-calling app and service.
Understanding FaceTime Data Usage
First and foremost, rest assured that FaceTime never uses any of your cellular plan’s voice minutes, no matter where or how you call. When you place a FaceTime call, it’s sending and receiving voice and video information using data over the internet, similar to the way any other app on your phone exchanges data online. And while you can place FaceTime calls using either Wi-Fi or your cellular data plan, FaceTime will always default to Wi-Fi when possible. So, if you’re in a Wi-Fi coverage area and place a FaceTime call, you won’t incur any data charges. If you do make a FaceTime call when there’s no Wi-Fi, you’ll be using data, and the call will count against your plan’s monthly data limit.
How Much Data Does FaceTime Use?
Actually, FaceTime doesn’t use all that much data. A FaceTime call uses, at most, about 3MB of data per minute, which adds up to about 180MB of data per hour. Here’s one way to think about how much data that is: If you have a typical 3GB per month wireless data plan and used it exclusively for making FaceTime calls, you could video chat for almost 17 hours each month. Of course, that’s not very realistic and simply used for comparison; most of your FaceTime calls are probably on Wi-Fi, and you tend to use wireless data for a lot of things aside from FaceTime.
Does FaceTime Use Wi-Fi?
If you’re concerned about the possibility of FaceTime sometimes using your data plan (such as when you don’t realize you don’t have Wi-Fi), you can turn FaceTime into a Wi-Fi-only calling app.
How to Track FaceTime Data Usage
If you want to keep tabs on how much cellular data FaceTime (or any other app) uses, you can do so, but it requires some manual tweaks. Your iPhone tracks data use, but it doesn’t reset the numbers each month when your cellular plan rolls over. Instead, if you’ve never manually reset your cellular statistics, it’s going to tally every minute of data since you activated the plan on your current phone.
