Whilst driving (in the US) & using Google or Apple Maps, about how much data are used per hour? I know there are many variables, but it seems there should be some historical data, at least for guesstimating purposes.

Soon, I’ll be driving for many days, and I haven’t a clue as to what I’m letting myself in for each hour of Maps/GPS use.

Musings & guesses most welcome.

Given where I drive is often out of range of any data connections my estimate could be wildly misleading. However, I use an AT&T data subscription on my iPad and have traveled across Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado for days on end and not exhausted the base data download allocation.

The application you are using makes a difference too. Some of them can and will download significant portions, perhaps even all, of the map data while you have a WiFi connection so it is possible you would not use any of your data subscription at all or only very little. Although I have Google Maps my favorite GPS apps are Maps and GPS Drive. GPS Drive is my "go to" application and that is the one that permits downloading and storing route maps while you are on WiFi.

Thanks, joemike!

I hope not to spend more than 7 Mb per hour. But if I see that I am exceeding that, then I'll revert to plan B. Well, once I figure out what that will be...

BTW, GPS Drive looks enticing. Thanks again.

Consider the You Need a Map application for iPad and iPhone. A surprisingly detailed map of the entire US is stored entirely on your device, so no bandwidth is needed at all, except to install. The map takes up GB. No route planning, though.

For other mapping applications, turning off satellite view cuts down the bandwidth requirements enormously.