"Is 1 GB a day enough?" is the question behind almost every eSIM purchase, and it is nearly impossible to answer from a plan page. So here is the useful version: what each app actually costs you in data, and what that adds up to on a normal day in Morocco.
One caveat first, stated plainly: the figures below are typical ranges, not guarantees. Data use swings enormously with video quality, autoplay settings and how good the signal is. Treat them as orders of magnitude — which is all you need to size a plan.
The cheap things (you will never notice these)
| Activity | Typical data | In a day |
|---|---|---|
| Text messaging (WhatsApp, iMessage) | a few KB per message | under 5 MB |
| Email, no big attachments | ~20–50 KB each | a few MB |
| Web browsing, article pages | ~1–3 MB per page | 30–100 MB |
| Maps navigation | ~3–5 MB per hour | 15–40 MB |
| Music streaming, normal quality | ~70–150 MB per hour | varies |
The one that surprises people is navigation. Turn-by-turn maps feel like they should be expensive and they are not: the map tiles are small and heavily cached. Driving for six hours across the country might cost you 30 MB. Navigation is not what empties a plan.
The expensive things (these are what actually drain it)
| Activity | Typical data |
|---|---|
| Scrolling a video feed (Instagram, TikTok, Reels) | ~100–250 MB per 15 minutes |
| Video call (WhatsApp, FaceTime) | ~3–5 MB per minute |
| Voice call over the internet | ~0.3–0.5 MB per minute |
| Streaming video at 1080p | ~1.5–3 GB per hour |
| Streaming video at 480p | ~0.5–0.7 GB per hour |
| Uploading 20 photos to a cloud backup | ~60–200 MB |
| A phone OS update | 1–6 GB |
Two entries there deserve a warning of their own.
Video feeds. Fifteen idle minutes of scrolling Reels or TikTok can cost more than an entire day of messaging, navigation and browsing put together. It is the single biggest difference between a traveller who never thinks about data and one who runs out by Wednesday.
Automatic OS and app updates. A phone that decides to update itself over mobile data can consume gigabytes without you touching it. Turn off automatic updates over cellular before you travel — it is the most common way people lose a plan to something they did not even want.
What a normal day in Morocco actually looks like
Putting the typical figures together for three realistic travellers:
| Traveller | What they do | Estimated day |
|---|---|---|
| Light | Messaging, maps, a few searches, photos saved locally | ~100–200 MB |
| Typical | All of the above, plus social feeds, a few video calls, cloud photo backup | ~500 MB – 1 GB |
| Heavy | All of the above, plus streaming video and tethering a laptop | 2 GB and up |
This is why a 1 GB daily allowance is the size it is: it comfortably covers the light and typical patterns, and the heavy pattern is almost always video rather than anything essential.
So is 1 GB a day enough?
For the overwhelming majority of trips, yes — with one honest qualification.
On our plans you get 1 GB per day at full 4G/5G speed, then reduced speed until the allowance resets the next day. That structure matters more than the number. If you do burn through the gigabyte on a heavy afternoon, you are not cut off and you are not asked to buy anything: messaging, maps and browsing keep working at reduced speed, and you start the next morning with a full allowance again.
What reduced speed will not do comfortably is stream high-definition video. If that is essential to your trip, plan for hotel Wi-Fi rather than a bigger mobile plan — it is cheaper and it works better.
Five settings that cut your use immediately
- Turn off automatic app and OS updates over mobile data. The single biggest saving available.
- Turn off video autoplay in Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok. This alone often halves a typical day.
- Download your maps before you fly, while you are on home Wi-Fi.
- Set cloud photo backup to Wi-Fi only. Holiday photos are large and they upload constantly.
- Drop streaming quality if you do watch something — 480p costs roughly a quarter of 1080p.
Do those five and a typical traveller lands nearer 300 MB a day than 1 GB.
Before you choose a plan
Size the plan to the number of days, not to a data figure — the daily allowance resets either way. You can see the full list of plan lengths and prices here, and check your handset free with our compatibility tool before buying anything.