How to Use Your iPhone's Internet Connection on Your iPad

You can tether your iPad to your iPhone by setting it up as a hotspot.

By
Daniel Nations
Daniel Nations
Daniel Nations
Writer
  • University of Texas at Arlington
Daniel Nations has been a tech journalist since 1994. His work has appeared in Computer Currents, The Examiner, and other publications. He is a developer who has published apps in the Apple App Store, Google Play marketplace and Amazon Appstore; he also has worked as a data analyst and DB administrator.
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Updated on November 7, 2021

What to Know

  • Turn on your iPhone's hotspot: Open Settings, tap Personal Hotspot, and toggle it on. Tap Wi-Fi password to customize the password.
  • Next, on your iPad, tap Wi-Fi, and find the name of your iPhone under Personal Hotspots. Enter the password to join your network.
  • Pricing will depend on your provider. AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon have packages that include using your smartphone as a hotspot.

This article explains how to use your iPhone's internet on your iPad, which normally can only use Wi-Fi.

How to Turn On Your iPhone's Hotspot

Here's how to set up a hotspot from your iPhone's Settings. Add a password to make your hotspot more secure.

  1. Launch your iPhone's Settings app, tap Personal Hotspot.

    Settings and Personal Hotspot on an iPhone

  2. On the hotspot page, flip the top switch from Off to On.

    You may need to call a number or visit a website to set your hotspot up on your cellular account.

    Turn on Personal Hotspot on iPhone

  3. Your hotspot has a default password, but to customize it, tap Wi-Fi Password and enter an alphanumeric password that has at least eight characters.

    The Personal Hotspot and password change screens on an iPhone

  4. Your password will remain even if you turn the hotspot feature off. You don't need to create a new one every time you use the feature.

    Using your iPhone's data connection is more secure than using a Guest Wi-Fi service, which puts you on the same Wi-Fi network as other 'guests' using the service.

How to Connect to a Hotspot on Your iPad

Connecting your iPad to the hotspot is almost identical to connecting it to any other Wi-Fi network.

  1. Go into your iPad's settings.

    The iPad Settings app

  2. Tap Wi-Fi, and find the name of your iPhone under Personal Hotspots.

    Settings and Wi-Fi menus on an iPad

  3. Enter the password to join your network.

If your hotspot doesn't show up, turn Wi-Fi off and then on again on your iPad. Sometimes it needs to refresh the list of available connections.

Pricing and Other Considerations

Pricing will depend on your service provider. AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon all have packages that include using your smartphone as a hotspot. Most give you an allowance of hotspot bandwidth before either slowing the speed or stopping it altogether.

The amount is usually enough unless you are doing a lot of video streaming, which will eat into it fairly quickly. Check with your service provider to get more details on hotspot fees and services.

Using a hotspot is still using your cellular data. If you have a maximum data cap, streaming movies over the hotspot may not be a good idea. The average HD movie can take over 1 GB to stream, which can quickly burn through your data limit.

Even unlimited plans usually cap the hotspot data, but this cap is usually higher. Check your wireless plan for all the details.

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