Does Pandora use data? How much of my data does Pandora use? Find all the answers here. Pandora is a revolutionary online radio service which enables you to listen to music either on your personal computer or on your mobile phone. Traditionally, radio channels used to operate on a certain frequency and you could listen to your favorite radio channels only within a particular region.
With the advent of Pandora Internet Radio, it is now possible to listen to a radio service far beyond the extent of radio frequencies. The Pandora App is available on both platforms – Android as well as iOS. All you need to launch the Pandora App on your mobile phone is a high speed internet connection and you can listen to your favorite artists 7 days a week, 24 hours a day!
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Does Pandora Use A Lot Of Data?
This brings us to the next valid question which you may have in mind – How much data does Pandora use? As with other music streaming services, the amount of data consumption does depend on the usage. You will be spending a copious amount of your mobile data if you use the services of Pandora continuously. To give you a rough estimate about the amount of data consumed, we will have to rattle our brains a bit and bring out our inner mathematician. As per the information given in Pandora`s help section, Pandora streams music at 64k AAC+.
In layman terms, this means that 64kb of data is used every second. Translating this to Mb/hr, we get a figure of 28.8 Mb/hr, which can be rounded to approximately 30 Mb/hr. The next valid question – How many hours of music can Pandora stream in 1 GB? 1000 Mb/30 Mb/hr = 33.3 hours. Thus, you can stream 33 hours of music per gigabyte of data. Pandora offers different levels of audio quality for free and premium users. Free users can stream music at 64 Kbps, which means that one can stream approximately 36 hours of music in 1 GB of data.
On the same lines, premium users can stream music at 192 Kbps, which comes out to about 18 hours of music in 1 GB of internet data. Thus, Pandora can use a substantial amount of your internet data if you listen to music over it continuously, day in and day out! Those who are only interested in the exact figures can use the following table for reference on internet data usage by Pandora:-
Pandora Data Usage Chart
| Free/Premium | Audio Quality | Data Usage |
| Free | 64 Kbps | 1 GB/36 hours |
| Premium | 192 Kbps | 1 GB/18 hours |
With the help of above chart, you can estimate, how much data does Pandora use an hour. Even though Pandora uses a sizeable amount of internet data and can eat up your mobile data if you use it incessantly, it offers several advantages over other music streaming services. The first and foremost benefit of Pandora over other radio services which operate on the concept of radio frequencies is that you can play music on it even when you are traveling to other cities or when you are living outside your country.
The user-interface is simple and you can even skip unwanted ads, thus adding to the user experience. There are no pauses and no commercial DJ chatters interrupt in between. Another added feature which is a hit with Pandora`s users is that you can personalize the music that you want to listen to according to your taste, mood and personal interest. The user can even provide positive or negative feedback by giving thumbs up or thumbs down and this feedback is analyzed and considered when you are provided with the subsequent set of songs.
It also offers a very wide selection range of songs and artists. To give you an approximate number, you can choose from over 10 billion radio stations worldwide. This kind of diversity is exceptional and unheard of in other online music streaming platforms. No wonder Pandora has become the “King of online radio services” in a very short span of time. The video below offers great insights on how much data Pandora uses in iPhone. For others it won’t be much different.