24 Jul How To: Monitor Data Usage In Windows Phone 8.1
It’s hard these days to avoid using data on your smartphone.
Between emails, social networking, file sharing and online research, that monthly data limit can creep on you pretty quickly. Before you know it, you’ve got a huge bill and you’re wondering where you went wrong.
Like Android and iOS, to help you keep track of your data usage, Windows Phone 8.1 offers a built-in data meter. Called Data Sense, this feature offers a detailed breakdown of your data usage as well as alerts notifying you when you are near your data limit.
So how do you get started with Data Sense?
How To Set Up Data Sense To Track Data Usage
1. Open up the App List by swiping to the left, tap Data Sense > Set Limit 2. Under the Limit Type heading, choose which option describes your service type:
- Pre Paid – Select this if you have a preset amount of data to use, which will expire on a specific date.
- Monthly – Select this if you have a limited amount of data you can use each month before excess data fees are charged.
- Unlimited – Select this if you do not have a limited amount of data but you would still like to monitor data usage.
3. If Pre-paid or Monthly was selected, you will need to enter information about your data plan such as your billing cycle and data limit.
4. Tap Done. Tip: To quickly access Data Sense, you can pin it to Start. To do this, tap and hold Data Sense in the App List and tap Pin To Start. Your current usage will be displayed as a tile. 
Data Usage Reports
Once Data Sense has been set up, it will show you:
- How much data you have used for the current billing period.
- Your WiFi usage.
- Days remaining and data remaining until your billing cycle refreshes.
- Data usage by application.
Not using a Windows Phone? Check out our posts on Android’s built-in data monitoring feature and iOS 7’s built-in data monitoring feature.