Hotspot limits · United Kingdom

EE hotspot limits

Checked 1 November 2026 against EE’s own pages. Plans change: your plan’s terms win.

EE doesn’t give tethering an allowance of its own. Using your phone as a hotspot, over Wi-Fi, USB or Bluetooth, draws on the same data allowance as the phone.

Hotspot data
Your plan’s data allowance; EE publishes no separate hotspot allowance.
After it
What happens at the end of your allowance depends on the plan, not on tethering.
Video
EE publishes no hotspot-specific video limit.
Check
EE app › Manage › View full usage, or text BALANCE to 150.

Hotspot allowance

  • EE’s help says tethering is included in your plan as part of your data allowance.
  • You can tether over Wi-Fi (Personal Hotspot), a USB cable or Bluetooth, on phones that support it, which includes iPhones and Android phones.

Speed after the allowance

  • EE doesn’t describe a hotspot speed limit. When your data allowance runs out, the plan’s own rules apply, the same as for data on the phone.
  • EE texts you when you’ve used 80% of your monthly allowance, and again when you’ve run out.

Plans without hotspot

EE’s help describes tethering as part of the data allowance on its plans, with no plans listed as excluding it.

Video

EE publishes no video limit for tethered devices. Any video setting on your plan applies to the phone’s data as a whole.

Check what’s left

  1. Open the EE app and choose Manage › View full usage.

  2. Or sign in at ee.co.uk from a browser.

  3. Or text BALANCE to 150 for free from your EE phone.

Connected to EE’s mobile network, add-on.ee.co.uk also shows this month’s usage without signing in.

What Kilobat can tell you

If every speed test and big download on your hotspot stops near the same speed on different occasions while the ping stays normal, Health says it looks like a hotspot cap. A weak signal or a busy cell wanders instead, and Kilobat says nothing then. It also notices video held near 1.5 Mbps while other downloads run faster. It can’t see your allowance or tell a hotspot cap from a plan that caps everything: check on the phone too.

It’s free in Health on any phone hotspot, with the measurements behind it in Kilobat Pro, and in the terminal with kilobat hotspot. More in the docs and saving hotspot data.

Questions

My EE hotspot is slow but I have data left. Is EE throttling it?

EE doesn’t publish a hotspot speed limit, so a slow hotspot with data left is more likely the signal or a busy mast. Compare a speed test on the phone with one on the laptop; if both are slow, it isn’t the hotspot.

Sources

Checked against EE’s own plan pages, terms and help articles on 1 November 2026. Allowances and speeds differ by plan and change often; what your own plan says wins.

See what your hotspot is really doing

Kilobat is a Mac menu-bar app that shows which apps use your hotspot’s data, holds back updaters on metered networks, and says when downloads keep stopping at the same speed.

Download for Mac ↓
brew install seifip/kilobat/kilobat