Sudden huge increase in internet data usage

Add me to the list of this issue!!!started I. January. Now today the first day in February I am tracking usage and it is increasing all day,,, even when everything is off or I am out of the house. 

I have done everything Comcast has suggested, and I removed every device that was connected to wi-fi except my Roku TV. I changed the password on the modem.  I turned wifi off on my phone and am just using data.  I watched 2 hours of Netflix last night and went to bed.  Because it was the first day of the month, I was anxious to wake up THIS morning and see what that did to my daily total.  Imagine my shock when it said I had used 40 GIGS OF DATA!!!!!!  The ONLY thing on the internet was my TV for 2 hours.  That cannot POSSIBLY be accurate!  I can't even imagine what my usage will be at the end of this month with this blatant scam!

SOMETHING STINKS HERE!!!!!

I hate to admit this but I think our data usage may be correct after all.  I'm not saying this will be the case for everyone but it took me 2 days of researching to figure it out.  Does anyone else stream Apple TV+?  If so, did you know almost all their content streams in 4K?  We just picked it up late December for 3 free months after my husband upgraded his iPhone and have been watching a lot of content.  I started digging into our data usage and found our laptops and phones didn't even get in the ballpark of our January data usage so it came down to streaming.  Almost all apps allow for you to lower the quality of the streaming, if you want to and most are only HD, offering some movies or shows in 4K if you specifically choose but not Apple TV+.  When I totaled the hours of content we've watched times 8 gigs per hour streaming 4K and that put us in the ballpark of our January usage.  I'm shocked - first, I had no idea we even had a data limit on our Xfinity Internet account because we've never even come close to it and second, had no idea that 4K used so much more data than regular HD.  It's OK if it's just a show or movie here or there, may not even move your needle that much but a couple of seasons of 2 or 3 different shows that are an hour long and yup, that will do it.  I wish Apple would give you the choice to NOT watch 4K but I have yet to find a solution for that.  You can go into your iTunes account and instead of best quality playback, you can choose Good but that's about it.  We're going to try that and see if it makes any difference.  Also, since we have unlimited data on our phones, we turned off the WiFi on both them but honestly, rarely use them when we're home anyway - we're mostly on our tablets or TV.  I hope this helps someone else who may be tracking down their increase and for those with no known source, keep hunting it down!  

After months of stable monthly usage (400-700GB), we are all of a sudden surpassing our monthly usage allotment. 

We have changed anything during this time. In fact, I haven’t even done online gaming this month and our usage somehow doubled. 

Reading through these forums it’s apparent this is becoming a pattern. I suspect it’s a scam to get people upgraded to unlimited internet plan. 

Why can we not get an answer on what is using up our data? It’s awfully convenient that you’re the arbiter and sole owner of the usage data, tell us it’s increasing, charge us for it, but can’t tell us why. 

I do see many posts on spiked internet usage, family of 2 who are at home very little, using between 250 to 400 gigabytes each month until January 2022, Our usage spiked over 15 times above normal to over 6000. Called support , claiming we were possibly hacked, someone using Wi-Fi? Changed all passwords, started monitoring all traffic, and again this month using same amount. After reading all the posts about the same issue, I am guessing this is an infinity problem or scam. I guess we all have not choice but to cancel services and wait for the lawyers to pursue. Years down the line we may get a few cents back. Very disappointed!!

Posting on my family's experience.  We were traveling away from our home and internet for all of January.  Mid-month we received a notice from Xfinity that we were about to exceed our allocated data usage cap (1225GB plan).  I contacted Xfinity Support twice, was reassured we wouldn't be charged but unhelpfully I think the support reps were referring to the free first month overage only, and otherwise provided no assistance whatsoever in diagnosing the problem  Clearly it was a problem as no one was home and suddenly there was a 9x-10x exponential increase in internet data usage.  

Last week I looked at our mesh WiFi system data and realized most of the data consumption had occurred and continued to occur from one device - the Toshiba Amazon Fire IP TV in our den.  I factory reset the TV, and I also changed the password to our cable modem (that we own).  All of this appears to have worked because we are back to using less than 10GB per day of internet data.  My wife found some content online suggesting an app on the TV updated and was causing the data hemorrhage.   Hope this helps although YMMV.  

Hello’ do anyone know how I can change or add a different account

I have recieved texts/emails that I have used over 1229 G of data. It's only the 7th day in February, who is this possible? Nothing has changed with my usage. No additional users, no 4k streaming, no gaming. Nothing. I have NEVER gone over my usage in the past few years and no all of a sudden I've used it all in 7 days? Something is wrong. I have restarted my Modem, didn't change anything. How is this happening all of a sudden with no change in my equipment or usage? I've contacted customer service and they told me to wait, until the month is over. But if I do that, I will double or triple my usage! If this does not get fixed will have to change carriers. 

My first post was removed. Isn't that odd... so, my issue is I have recieved texts/emails stating that I have used all of my data up for the month. This is the 7th of February and I have managed to use up all my data. How is this possible? Nothing has changed! I have not gone over any data in over a year (+) and all of sudden I've used it all. I am afraid my the end of the month my usage will triple! I have restarted my Modem, and haven't seen any changes. I know I am not the only one, so their has to be an explanation as to why all of sudden this is occurring. 

Seems this is a longstanding issue that comes and goes if you dig deep enough..

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/10/comcast-incorrectly-charged-2000-customers-for-exceeding-data-cap/

So after multiple calls to tech support without  resolution, posting on this board, and filing a complaint, I have out of the blue received a $50 gift card from Xfinity for “customer appreciation “…..anyone else receive anything like this before? It’s by far the strangest attempt at customer retention without actually addressing the problem from a company I have ever seen. 

Had a few of these alerts in 2021. Never went over until December when we allegedly went over by the 20th. We do stream a bit and I work from home so I didn't question it too hard until the December issue. We were barely home the first three weeks and there was no way we exceeded the cap in that time. So I now have a Pfsense firewall and ntopng runnin between the cable modem and my router, logging all traffic and bandwidth utilization. Next time, I will be prepared.

Has anyone ever been charged for exceeding the cap? I believe they state that they give up to 3 "grace" months before charging and while I've come close a few times, last December is the only time I allegedly went over so they've never charged me. However, my top bandwidth speeds did mysteriously drop to 50Mbs (paying for 300) sometime in December and on Sunday, a tech replaced everything between the box in the neighbor's yard and the modem, including the modem and still running at 50Mbps down. So it is clearly something on Comcast's side. While they swear that they don't throttle, I pretty much have proof of it.

Hi - I've been trying to get answer to why my data usage has suddently gone up. Over the last 6 years that I've been with Xfinity usage has been between 300 - 500 GB average. Suddenly starting November of 2021 the usage has gone past the 1200+ limit and keep getting warnings as soon as 10 -14 days into cycle that you are 90% of usage

I've called a number of times to no avail and this is frustrating. Just this month on 6th my usage showed around 80GB and suddenly last night it went up to 611 GB which is ridiculous. Can someone look into this and help me

I’m just now having same issues. No changes to routines (average 500/mo) for last 12 months. Now hitting 500 in 10 days with less people in my home and NO gaming this month.