Long enough for most trips, and the spread is enormous: the same 10GB covers under a week of heavy use or more than a month of light use. Which end you land on is decided almost entirely by video.
The calculator, run at each of its three usage styles, against a 10GB allowance.
Divide the allowance by daily use and you get a trip length. The spread between the styles is wide, which is why a single "how long does 10 GB last" answer is not much use without knowing which one you are.
| Usage style | 10 GB lasts |
|---|---|
| Light — maps and messaging | 40 MB/day — longer than any normal trip |
| Typical — maps, some video, a few calls | 435 MB/day — about 23 days |
| Heavy — video, calls and tethering | 1.5 GB/day — about 6 days |
A range this wide is not vagueness. Light and heavy use differ by more than an order of magnitude, because streaming video consumes on a completely different scale from maps and messaging.
That is why a single number for "how long does 10GB last" is not useful. Work out which row you are, and the answer becomes precise enough to act on.
For anyone on the light end, the allowance is not the constraint — the validity window is. A 30-day 10GB plan gives you 10GB within 30 days, and light use will not come close to spending it before the clock runs out.
This is the most common way travellers waste money on roaming: buying a large allowance for a long trip, then discovering the plan expired two weeks in. Check the validity period alongside the gigabytes.
For typical use — maps, messaging, some video — around three weeks. For heavy use with streaming and tethering, under a week. For light use it outlasts any normal trip.
For light to typical use, yes. Check the plan validity as well as the allowance, since many are sold for a fixed number of days and the window can expire before the data does.
Streaming video, then video calls, then tethering. Maps and messaging are close to a rounding error against any of those.
If your use is uncertain, a smaller plan plus a top-up is usually cheaper than over-buying, because unused data rarely rolls over. If you are working remotely, buy the headroom.
Frequently, and it is the most common way travellers waste money on roaming. A 30-day 10GB plan is 10GB within 30 days, not 10GB whenever you get to it.