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When you do a search in Safari, it preloads the top search result in the background so that if you do indeed select that result, the page will appear almost instantly. What this means, though, is that if that's not the web page you want, you've already used up some of your data to preload it. This is fine if you're on Wi-Fi or an unlimited data plan, but perhaps not a good idea if you're trying to keep down your data usage. Fortunately, you can turn off this feature, thereby avoiding data usage for web pages that you may not want to access.
Related: How Much Data Does Netflix Use on iPhone? (& What to Do About It)
How to Save Data by Turning off Web Page Preloading
- Open Settings.
- Tap Safari.
- Toggle off Preload Top Hit.
Now you'll only be using data if you choose to actually view a web page.