Internet Providers with Data Caps

What Is A Data Cap?

A data cap is the limit on the amount of data you are allowed to use each month. Essentially it’s how much you can use the internet. The consequences of exceeding this limit would depend on the type of cap you have. There are two types of caps, a ‘hard’ data cap and a ‘soft’ data cap.

A ‘hard’ data cap used to mean that once you reached your limit your internet service provider would shut you off until the following month. Today, they keep your service on, but charge an overage fee based on the amount of data you use. It is usually charged in blocks, but it can get quite expensive.

A ‘soft’ data cap is when a provider reduces your internet speed, called throttling, when you hit your data limit during the specified period. You are not charged any overage fees and you only experience this lowering of speed until your next billing cycle.

Many providers today are placing a higher limit on hard data caps, or have no data cap plans. For example, cable and fiber internet plans have 1 TB data caps or none at all, while DSL and wireless internet types usually have data caps ranging from 10-500 GB or more depending on the provider.

Why Data Caps Exist

Data caps have emerged in recent years as a way for Internet providers to police bandwidth usage on their networks. Rather than letting everyone use the “pipe” as much as they want, the broadband industry in the US seems to be moving towards a “pay as you go” model where customers who use more data than other will have to pay extra for it.

Statements from Internet providers suggest that data caps are a necessary step to combat network congestion. Opponents of data caps believe that the motivation for data caps has more to do with recovering declining cable revenue or creating a roadblock for streaming services like Netflix. Whichever side you believe, the outcome is the same — data caps are becoming commonplace.

When you shop for an Internet plan, keep in mind that Internet providers often advertise their data caps as “data plans” or “data limits.”

Internet Providers Without Data Caps

Some of the internet providers listed below offer plans without data caps. Often, these plans have higher, sometimes near gigabit speeds. Still read the fine print when signing up for a new plan. “Unlimited data” plans can come with soft data caps that aren’t advertised. It’s possible to get unlimited data — providers offer unlimited data plans as an add-on to your internet plan, which can cost an extra $50/month.

What Happens if you Go Over a Data Cap

Customers who go over the limit set by their provider usually have to pay a fee or purchase additional data on top of their base rate. Additional data purchases are usually handled “a la carte” style, in add-on bundles of 10GB or so.

Some Internet providers provide digital meters for checking how much data you’ve used in a given month. Others do not and only show data use information if their records show you’ve gone over the limit.

In some rare cases, a customer’s service may be terminated if the provider determines that they are breaking their service agreement.

How We Collect this Data

Our data cap information is collected regularly by our full-time research team. This page is automatically updated when we notice changes on Internet provider websites during the routine collection of specific broadband Internet, TV, and phone plans.

All the data shown on this page is based directly on Internet provider websites, information from company call centers, and other official marketing materials. We are unable to display data cap information for plans that are not publicly listed, or that we have not been able to pull into our database for some other reason.

Note: If you are an internet service provider on this list and you believe your company shouldn’t be included here please send us a note via our contact form. Once we verify that the plans listed on your website no longer include data caps, we’ll remove you from this list. This is particularly useful if you have just updated your plans, otherwise our data team will probably update it once they revisit your site to check plans.