The only impact MileIQ should have on the average cell phone charge is the usage of a small amount of data on a monthly basis. A typical MileIQ customer will use 1.5-2.5MB of data a month. Most plans provide 250MB-2GB, so that would be ~1% of data. With that said, your data usage will vary depending on how frequently you drive as well as how you interact with the app. Long-distance driving and not staying up to date with classifications can increase your data usage.
Checking data usage
In iOS, you can see exactly how much data every app on your device is using by opening the Settings app, tapping on Cellular, and scrolling down through your installed applications. Look for the small number under the MileIQ application; that is the historical data usage associated with our app. If you'd like to get statistics for a specific time period going forward, simply scroll down to the bottom of the Cellular page and tap Reset Statistics.
In most cases, you can check data usage on Android by opening the Settings panel > Wireless & networks > Data usage. Scroll to the App usage section, and there you will find MileIQ listed along with the amount of data it is using. By clicking on MileIQ, you are able to find more granular details about its historical data usage, along with foreground and background usage information.
We are confident putting MileIQ up against any other mileage-tracking app out there in terms of data usage. Please feel free to reach us by completing the form at support.mileiq.com if you feel that the data is higher than it should be, and we would be happy to investigate further.
Minimizing data usage
To minimize data usage, you can always pause MileIQ from your phone by navigating within the MileIQ mobile app to Menu > Drive Detection and toggle to Paused, which will limit data usage even further. Simply remember that you need to un-pause the app if you want to resume tracking. Also note that it can take up to 30 minutes for MileIQ to get a good read on your location so please give it ample time before you start driving again. You can see here for help with pausing: How to pause MileIQ
