Netflix’s Biggest Binge Watchers Are Getting Hit With Unexpected Higher Costs

While Netflix only has three set price points for users to choose from, some of the service’s biggest bingers will need to be aware of how much they’re actually watching each month if they don’t want to pay extra. Netflix won’t surprise anyone with added fees for watching too many episodes of The Office in a row, but Internet usage is a totally different story. Thanks to the addition of 4K streaming on Netflix’s highest plan, some users are getting hit with overages.

Most Internet plans come with a limit as to how much data you can use each and every month, but it’s not often you worry about hitting that ceiling. As folks are now finding out, streaming hours and hours of movies and TV shows in 4K take a bigger chunk out of a data limit than expected.

Netflix user James Wright spoke with the Los Angeles Times about his recent streaming usage, noting that he was contacted by Comcast and warned that he’d exceed his monthly limit, causing him to pay more on his bill.

“The first month I blew through the cap like it was nothing,” said Wright of his new 4K set up. “It’s not as hard to go through as you’d think.”

As the Times explains, more people streaming causes the standard Internet prices to rise, especially when those users are continuing to increase the definition of their streams.

Even when streaming in 4K, you may never reach the amount of usage as Wright or other people that the cable industry refers to as “power streamers.” That title is reserved to users that go through at least 1 TB of data each month. The Times reports that the number of those users has doubled over the last year as more families are streaming and playing video games.

Have you seen your Internet bill increase lately thanks to streaming? Let us know in the comments!