Some ISPs charge by the amount of data used, or offer limited data plans. When you exceed the limit your bill might increase or your Internet connection becomes slower until your data plan resets. The “metered connection” feature, available in Windows 8 and 8.1 can help you reduce the amount of sent and received data.
When a connection is set as metered, Windows will conserve bandwidth by turning off unnecessary transfers. While connected to a metered network Windows will delay the download of system updates (unless it’s a critical security update) and some Metro apps will change their behavior to lower data usage.
Note: You can only set wireless networks as metered. This option is not available for Ethernet connection.
Set Wireless Network as Metered Connection in Windows 8
1. Open the Networks section. Here are two ways to do that:
A. In Desktop mode, click on the Network icon in the Taskbar system icons area.
B. Open up the Charms Bar (Win + C or hold the mouse/finger at the top-right corner of the screen). Click/tap on the Settings Charm, then click/tap on the Network icon.
2. Now that you’re in the Networks area, right-click on your wireless network (for touch screen tap and hold) and from the menu select “Set as metered connection”. You can change it back at any time, by visiting the same menu and selecting “Set as non-metered connection”.
Set Wireless Network as Metered Connection in Windows 8.1
While many things are more intuitive in Windows 8.1 compared to 8, the option for setting a wireless network as a metered connection has been moved under PC Settings, which makes it a bit harder to find it.
1. Open up PC Settings (Win+I or open the Charms Bar, click/tap on Settings and choose Change PC settings).
2. In PC Settings, click/tap on Network and then on Connections.
3. Click/tap on the network you want to set or unset as metered. Under Data Usage go to the option “Set as a metered connection” and use the switcher to turn it on or off.
