Hotspots and data

Make a Mac treat a network as metered

macOS marks some connections as expensive, such as an iPhone Personal Hotspot. Other phone hotspots can look like usual Wi-Fi to the Mac.

Applies to: macOS 10.14 and later for the expensive flag that apps read. macOS 13 Ventura and later for Low data mode in Wi-Fi Details.Checked: 29 October 2026

Symptoms

  • Apps behave on an Android hotspot as they do on home Wi-Fi.
  • Updates and sync run while the Mac is tethered to a phone over USB.
  • Low Data Mode is off on a network that costs you money for each gigabyte.

Likely causes

  • macOS knows only some connections. Apple's documentation names cellular and Personal Hotspot as expensive interfaces. It does not name other phones' hotspots.
  • Tethering can look like Ethernet. A phone connected with a cable can appear as a wired or USB network service.
  • macOS has no switch to mark a network as expensive. System Settings has Low data mode for a Wi-Fi network. It does not have a metered switch.

How to check

  1. Show the processes that use expensive interfaces. If no process appears while apps use the network, macOS does not treat it as expensive.

    nettop -P -l 1 -t expensive

  2. Choose Apple menu > System Settings > Wi-Fi. Click Details next to the network.

  3. Look at the Low data mode switch for this network.

How to fix it

  1. On a Wi-Fi hotspot, turn on Low data mode in Wi-Fi Details. Click OK.

  2. On an iPhone, use Personal Hotspot when you can. macOS marks it as expensive.

  3. Pause sync, backups and updates by hand while you use the connection. See Mac uses Personal Hotspot data in the background.

  4. Turn off automatic macOS downloads. See Stop Software Update downloading on a hotspot.

With Kilobat

  1. Kilobat gives each network a data cost: Automatic, Metered or Unmetered. Automatic follows macOS.

  2. Mark the current network as metered. This works for Android hotspots and USB or Ethernet tethering.

    kilobat networks cost metered

  3. You can also set it in the Wi-Fi menu, the budget menu, the Health tab or Settings.

  4. See what Kilobat acts on and what macOS says.

    kilobat conditions --json

    Output metered, osMetered and meteredSource, which is macOS or you.

  5. On a metered network, Kilobat switches to Travel and skips scheduled speed tests. Blocking needs Pro and the network filter.

  6. For Wi-Fi, Kilobat needs Location access to tell networks apart. See Block an app on metered networks.

Questions

Can I mark a network as metered in System Settings?

No. System Settings has Low data mode for each Wi-Fi network. Low Data Mode and expensive are two different flags.

How do apps know that a connection is expensive?

Apps that use Apple's Network framework can read isExpensive and isConstrained on the current path.

Sources

Sources checked on 29 October 2026. Man pages are the ones installed with macOS; open one with man <name> in Terminal.