How to Stay Below Your Data Cap on Android

22.03.2012
Studies suggest that --which is great news for the tech industry, but perhaps not so great for the user who has to pay that pesky wireless bill at the end of each month.

As 4G networks become more popular and unlimited data plans , it's important that you know how to cut down your data usage without seriously compromising your mobile Android experience. Here are a few tips to help you track and reduce your data usage so you can avoid overage charges and .

The first step in reducing your data usage is figuring out how much data you actually use. You can check your data consumption as measured by your phone (which may be slightly different from what your carrier thinks you're using) by digging into your wireless settings menu. For the purposes of this guide, we're using a running Android Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.2), but some of these tips may work differently depending on what phone you own and which version of Android you have installed.

Open your Settings menu and navigate to Wireless & Networks, Data usage. Here you can see how much data you've used during your current billing cycle, set a mobile data limit that will disable your mobile data connection at a certain point, and view a list of apps that use data and how much they consume.

You can also monitor your data usage via third-party apps like Onavo, or carrier-specific apps like Verizon's or AT&T's . The primary benefit of using a carrier-specific app is that your carrier will always have the most accurate estimation of how much data you'll be charged for.