How Much Mobile Data Does an Indian Use Each Month — and How Much Is Video (2026)

How Much Mobile Data Does an Indian Use Each Month — and How Much Is Video (2026)

By Ashok Sachdev, Founder of JustShoot · Published 9 October 2026 · Sources read 9 October 2026

Short answer: Three widely quoted figures, all for roughly the same period, give three answers. TRAI says the average wireless data subscriber used 25.51 GB a month in 2025-26. Nokia says the average mobile user used 31.1 GB a month in December 2025. Ericsson says the average active smartphone used 37 GB a month at the end of 2025, and forecasts 70 GB by 2031. They differ because each divides by a different group of people. No Indian source publishes video's share of that data; Ericsson's global estimate is 75%.

All three numbers point the same way: Indians use more mobile data than people in almost any other country, and it keeps rising.

The three numbers side by side

Why they differ

The total amount of data is the same network traffic in all three. What changes is the number you divide it by.

• TRAI divides by every wireless data subscriber — 1,026.75 million at the end of March 2026. That count includes connections that use little data, and TRAI notes that Bharti Airtel now reports its machine-to-machine (M2M) connections in the base. More low-use connections mean a lower average. TRAI's figure is also an average across the whole financial year, not a year-end reading.
• Nokia's figure is a December reading and is built from Nokia's own analysis of operator data. Usage grows through the year, so a December figure sits above a full-year average.
• Ericsson divides by active smartphones only. Leave out basic phones, idle SIMs and M2M devices, and the average per device goes up.

So the honest summary is: an Indian mobile data subscriber uses about 25 GB a month across a year; an Indian smartphone user, at the end of 2025, about 31–37 GB.

The total behind them, from TRAI: wireless data use rose from 2,28,779 petabytes in 2024-25 to 2,85,376 petabytes in 2025-26, up 24.74%.

How fast it is growing

• Nokia: 17 GB (2021) → 19.5 GB (2022) → 24.1 GB (2023) → 27.5 GB (2024) → 31.1 GB (2025), a compound annual growth rate of 18.2% over five years.
• TRAI: 21.53 GB → 25.51 GB per subscriber in a year, +18.49%.
• Ericsson: forecasts about 11% a year to 2031 for the India region.

5G and home broadband over 5G

Nokia's report adds detail on where the data is going:

• 5G carried 46.8% of India's mobile data traffic in 2025; 4G carried 53.2%. Monthly 5G traffic reached 12.9 exabytes, up 70% in a year.
• Total monthly mobile data traffic crossed 27 exabytes.
• 5G fixed wireless access (home broadband over 5G) carries more than 25% of all 5G data. An FWA user consumes about 10 times as much as an average mobile user.
• India had 892 million active 4G devices in 2025, of which 383 million were 5G-capable.

The FWA point matters for the averages. Heavy home-broadband connections pull the per-user mobile average up, and much of that viewing happens on a TV, not a phone.

How much of it is video

No Indian source we found publishes the share of mobile data that is video. Ericsson's global estimate is that video makes up about 75% of all mobile data traffic. Coverage of Nokia's India report (CXOToday, Storyboard18) attributes the growth partly to video streaming, cloud gaming and AI apps, but the report gives no video percentage.

So be careful with any claim that "X GB of an Indian's data is YouTube". We could not find a sourced India figure for it.

What this means for a video creator in India

Data is not the constraint it was. At 25–37 GB a month, and with TRAI reporting that revenue per GB fell to ₹8.02 in 2025-26, a typical smartphone user can watch long videos on mobile data. Data cost is a weaker excuse for short videos than it was five years ago.

Attention is the constraint now. More data has not meant more patience. Retention, not file size, decides whether a long video is watched. The free YouTube income calculator shows how much watched time is worth by niche, which is the number that should set your video length.

A lot of viewing has moved to the TV. Home broadband over 5G is the fastest-growing part of the network. For how many Indians watch YouTube on a TV, see connected-TV viewers in India; for total viewers and daily time, see YouTube users in India and daily watch time.

How to quote these numbers

• Say who is counted: "25.51 GB per wireless data subscriber a month in 2025-26 (TRAI)", or "37 GB per active smartphone at end-2025 (Ericsson)".
• Do not compare TRAI's number with Ericsson's as if one were wrong. They are different averages of the same traffic.
• For video's share, the only published figure we found is Ericsson's global 75%. It is not an India number.

Where JustShoot fits

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FAQ

What is the average mobile data usage per user in India? TRAI reports 25.51 GB a month per wireless data subscriber for 2025-26. Nokia reports 31.1 GB a month per user in December 2025. Ericsson reports 37 GB a month per active smartphone at the end of 2025. The difference comes from who each source divides by.

Is India the highest mobile data user in the world? Ericsson's Mobility Report places the India region (India, Nepal and Bhutan) among the highest smartphone data users in the world, at about 37 GB a month per active smartphone at the end of 2025, against a much lower global average.

How much mobile data will Indians use in 2031? Ericsson forecasts about 70 GB a month per active smartphone in the India region by 2031, growing about 11% a year.

How much of India's mobile data is 5G? Nokia's MBiT 2026 report says 5G carried 46.8% of India's mobile data traffic in 2025, at 12.9 exabytes a month, up 70% in a year. Home broadband over 5G accounts for more than a quarter of that 5G data.

How much of mobile data is video? Ericsson estimates video at about 75% of all mobile data traffic worldwide. We found no published India-specific video share.

Sources, read 9 October 2026. TRAI, Information Note to the Press, Press Release No. 127/2026 (5 October 2026), Performance Indicators for 2025-26. Nokia, Mobile Broadband India Traffic Index (MBiT) 2026 (PDF, March 2026). Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2026 edition, as reported by TelecomLead (India region 37 GB, 70 GB by 2031, video 75% of global traffic). An earlier Ericsson edition (November 2025, reported by Business Today) gave 36 GB for the same region.