Starlink is getting daytime data caps

Zach Riley

November 5, 2022

If you use more than 1TB of “Priority Access” data each month, Starlink will start to slow down your home internet. In December, the change will take place.
With a new data policy that works like “Anytime Minutes” from the bad old days when cellphone service was very limited, Starlink will start to feel more like other ISPs. In December, customers who use more than 1TB of Priority Access data per month during peak hours will have their home internet slowed down by SpaceX‘s satellite internet division. As part of a new “Fair Use policy” in the US and Canada, the change is being made.

Residential customers will now start each month’s billing cycle with a certain amount of “Priority Access” data, which tracks what you use from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Starlink says that less than 10 percent of users currently go over that 1TB limit. If you do, you’ll be moved to “Basic Access” data, which means that your data won’t be as important when the network is busy, for the rest of your billing cycle.
You can buy more Priority Access data for 25 cents per gigabyte, but any data you use between 11 PM and 7 AM doesn’t count toward your total. (For example, you might want to update Call of Duty or set up device backups to run while everyone is sleeping.) Priority Access isn’t available to anyone with an RV or portability account, but there are different categories for people with a business account or who use Starlink at sea.

You can check how much data you’re using and decide if you want to buy Priority Access data through the Starlink app or the webpage for your Starlink account. As part of its new Fair Use policy, Starlink has also explained its business and mobility plans’ data limits and Priority Access pricing.

Starlink says that its internet is a “finite resource” that will grow as it launches more satellites. It says it has to “manage the network to balance Starlink supply with user demand.” But the new data limits bring Starlink down to the level of other ISPs like Comcast, which limits its customers to 1.2TB of data at the moment (and has repeatedly delayed introducing them in Northeast states).