Sudden huge increase in internet data usage

We're showing a big increase Internet data for January and February, but we aren't doing anything more than usual.

I've been a customer for 20+ years, and I never ran into this issue. We didn't get any new devices, and do the same activities now as we did last year.

This has happen to me past two months my data has almost doubled what it normally is so that way goes over the 1200 gb pretty obvious they are doing this and should be fined.

Same issue. Lots of time spent with support. Leaving xfinity asap!

November was also abnormally high for me as well. Not over the cap but almost 200GB more than that last month. Each month from August on slowly got higher until November where it peaked.

Perhaps tired old car analogies work better, since everyone understands them, and this is where complaints go to die.  I’ll tell you a story.

There’s one company in town and they sell cars.  The car works fine.  It’s even got some features you want.  Other people make parts for it (goblins), and are actually responsible for them (apps and programs you buy, hardware too).  There’s ONE problem though, it doesn’t have a gas gauge.  Meh, you’re OK with it.  Maybe you don’t know a car is supposed to have one. 

Since it’s the only car you can get service with, you go for it instead of buying something else that doesn’t have a local dealership.  In fact, you lease it.  Now it’s not your problem at all.  If it breaks, it’s their problem, not yours.  That gas gauge.  Yeah.  It’s a problem, but you figure you can guess when you need to fill up, based on how far you drive, and drive it for a while.  It works!! 

After a while, you run out of gas and are mystified.  You didn’t do anything different.  Same route, same time, it’s puzzling. Now you have to buy a gas can.  What you didn’t know is goblins (software app devs) are in charge of the fuel injection, snuck into your garage, and put in a super charger when you were sleeping.  It burns twice the gas when you accelerate (HD vs FHD streaming).  It’s not enough to really notice anything, but the car works better and you’re cool with it.  Goblins work 24/7.  You could have many (software updates).

Then something else comes up.  A goblin got stuck under the hood (software update stall)!  He was trying to swap out your super charger for a quad turbo (FHD to UHD streaming).  That’s 4X that gas, and worse yet, he got stuck doing it, so now you got a goblin under the hood, stuck in a loop, spraying gas all over the place.  You run out of gas, and have to buy another gas can.

Now you are mad.  You figure, if you time how long you use your car, using a watch, then that will tell you how much gas is left in the gas tank in your car.  Log Usage and power on time!  Maybe you think looking at the calendar on the wall will tell you how much gas is in the car tank too.  Makes sense, right?  Nope.  There’s a gnome (software update again).  They updated your car.  That might have fixed your goblin problem with a reboot, but it took some gas.  Try to go work, but run out of gas again.  Buy another gas can. 

 Other people use the car (network users).  Maybe they even ran over something and punched a hole in the gas tank and now it’s leaking (bad website, click on bad email, social media issue or device exploit).  They do not drive the car the same way either.  They punch it and use the quad turbos too.  Sometimes they leave it running all night (open browser or streaming device). You still don’t have a gas gauge, so you make everyone look at their watch and log the time they used the car.  Maybe that will tell you what is left in the gas tank?  No, that doesn’t work either, buy another gas can. 

A watch is not a data rate gauge, or a data logger, and neither is the calendar on the wall.  What if I told you controlling your internet service on your phone was a really bad idea (the least secure device you own)?  What if I told you that you could build a gas gauge for your car, gave you instructions, perhaps even using parts you have collecting dust?

Would you do it? 

Took an hour to get to a human being. Finally got to a human being. Added unlimited Internet data for $11 more per month. This will tide me over before I leave Xfinity all together. Looking forward to the day!  

I have the same issue. What is unique is I have two accounts. My home and I pay for my sister in laws. Both accounts under my name. I went to an unlimited plan at one point for her residence because she was exceeding data usage consistently. I reverted back to original plan. Same modem/wifi router at both locations.

A) A single person who watches a few hours of TV a day and works from home 3-4 days a week. Gone every weekend. Does not download any large files for work. I throttled the Roku to 720p. 4 devices connected (2 Roku, Laptop, Printer). I monitor and deny access to all other devices. 1 - 1.2 TB/month. 30GB today so far while she was at work (and no there are no other devices connected, laptop gone)

B) 4 family members. 1 full time work from home, IT so large files moving. 2 kids streaming video and gaming. Multiple TVs at 1080. 10-12 devices connected. 700 GB month. Never close to data limit.

So for some reason option A is close to double the usage. There is obviously something going on and I can do direct comparisons. xFinity needs to address this.

I have been closely monitoring my data usage since the beginning of February and have noticed a consistent increase of 2-3 GB per day. My habits are very similar every day. Yesterday and today I haven't been on the Internet much and haven't had my TV on that much, either, but my data usage keeps going up. If it gets close to my limit at the end of the month as it has for the past 8 months, I will dump Xfinity.

I haven’t exceeded my internet usage, HOWEVER, in October, November and December, my usage increased between 650 - 900 gb each month and I was using far less WiFi (TV, laptop, tablets, etc.) and wasn’t working from home during all of December and most of November. Last month and this month, I added a total of 10 new smart devices to my WiFi and started WFH again, and my usage is back down to the average 350 - 390 range. While I know my issue didn’t cause a billing increase, this is VERY weird, considering I was home less, with less devices connected, and somehow doubled my data usage. It’s almost like they’re surging prices for “peak” months kinda like they do for gas/electric (idk if Winter months are *literally* considered “peak” for Internet, just a theory). 

I'm reading all the comments here. Yes I've been using xfinity for my internet usage for years now and all of a sudden. I'm having a big big big spike in data usage. I went for 700-800 to being over my data usage towards the end of 2021 now entering in 2022 with this stuff going on. Alot of customers and having the same issue. I've been checking online for a virus that runs in the background I did a clean install on my modem reset and everything clean install on every single device in my house hold and still same thing. I'm starting to belive its xfinity and something is going on.

Did everyone’s internet usage just spike for no reason ?

I am having the same issue. I have received an email saying that I exceeded 75% of my data limit (in 17 days), which is impossible. 1.2 TB is a huge amount of data and as far as I remember it was written in their web site that watching 18 hours of online video per day for the whole month would spend 1.2TB. I do not use even half of it. And now I see that a lot of other people also having the same issue. Why does the company solve this problem for good? I do not have to spend my hours on the phone try to find a real person to talk. And it seems like in most cases the problem was not even solved through customer support. 

I have  huge increase in data usage since November and went over 1.2 terra bytes  in January. There are just two of us in the house, no gamers, Netflix 3-4 nights 6pm to 10pm otherwise normal email and some Zoom.

I highly question the ability of Xfinity to accurately measure my data usage on coax cable installed 20 or more years ago. All coax in the house is new but the more rural neighborhood has had many problems over the years. 

Please add my name to the frustrated customers that have tried many things to lower the data usage with no affect. More importantly please make sure the issue is not on your end.

I believe the company is trying to force people to buy the unlimited data plan. They are making money either by charging for going overlimit or selling the unlimited data that would not be needed.