While most carriers offer unlimited data with their monthly plans, there are some out there that still limit cellular data usage. With dozens ofAndroid’s best appsand services running in the background, you may run out of your monthly mobile data rather quickly. So instead of paying for expensive mobile internet every month, you’re able to enable the data saver mode on yourtop budget Android phoneand restrict apps from consuming data in the background. Here’s how you can start conserving your data with ease.
What is Data Saver on Android?
Google introduced the Data Saver feature with the Android 7.0 release. The search giant used to offer Lite mode in Google Chrome to block images and save up to 70% of data. Since mobile data costs have reduced over time, Google removed the Lite mode in Chrome on August 10, 2025.
Data Saver mode limits how much data your installed apps can use in the background. If your phone isn’t connected to Wi-Fi or frequently remains out of the Wi-Fi range, it switches to mobile data to function properly.
Some video streaming and instant messaging apps may consume abnormal data in the background. When you enable Data Saver on your Android phone, these apps can’t connect to the internet in the background. You must open the app to receive updates.
Since the installed apps can’t refresh in the background, an active Data Saver mode also improves your Android phone’s battery life.
We use screenshots from a Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phone in the steps below. The steps may vary on Android phones from Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, and OnePlus.
Enable data saver mode on most Android phones
You can turn on data saver mode from the settings or access it from the quick toggles menu. Follow the steps below.
You should give unrestricted data access to essential apps like WhatsApp, Gmail, Slack, and other work apps so that you never miss a single important alert from such apps.
You can access the Data Saver mode from the quick toggles too.
How to turn off Android Data Saver mode
An active Data Saver mode may result in streaming glitches and slow web-browsing speeds
Set up Data Saver mode on Samsung Galaxy phones
Samsung uses the One UI software skin on Galaxy phones. The One UI settings menu is different from the stock Android. Here are the steps to set up Data Saver mode on Samsung phones.
Enable ultra data saving mode on Samsung phones
Ultra data saving mode compresses data to save cellular data. It automatically blocks data access to all the apps in the background. Here’s how to enable it.
Cut back mobile data usage on Android
Among all thenew features and small enhancements with Android 13, we haven’t seen Google make any tweaks to the Data Saver mode. Before enabling the function,check how much cellular data your phone usedin the current cycle.
