Storage depends on the bitrate of your local recording and how long you keep it. At a constant bitrate, estimate decimal storage with GB ≈ bitrate in Mbps × recording hours × 0.45. That works out to about 10.8 GB per day for every 1 Mbps, or 3.94 TB per 365-day year for every 1 Mbps. A 24/7 H.264 recording at YouTube’s recommended live bitrate for 1080p60 would use roughly 184 GB a day, or 67 TB a year, before headroom.
Estimate storage from your local recording bitrate
Use the bitrate configured for the recording saved to disk, not an assumed figure based only on resolution. If your local recording uses the same encoded stream as your YouTube live output, the live bitrate is a practical estimate. If it uses separate recording settings, use that bitrate or measure a sample file.
The calculation assumes a constant bitrate and decimal units (1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes; 1 TB = 1,000 GB):
Approximate GB = bitrate in Mbps × hours × 0.45
For continuous recording, multiply bitrate by 10.8 to estimate decimal GB per day, or by 3.94 to estimate decimal TB over 365 days. These are arithmetic estimates, not measured file sizes; they do not include filesystem overhead or safety margin.
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Examples using YouTube H.264 live recommendations
YouTube’s live encoder guidance recommends the H.264 bitrates below. The storage estimates apply those rates to continuous local recording; they are not guarantees about the size of every recording.
| Live output | YouTube recommended H.264 live bitrate | Approx. local storage per day | Approx. local storage per 365-day year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1080p60 | 17 Mbps | 184 GB | 67 TB |
| 1440p60 | 34 Mbps | 367 GB | 134 TB |
| 2160p (4K)60 | 50 Mbps | 540 GB | 197 TB |
These figures are decimal estimates based on YouTube’s H.264 live bitrate recommendations, checked in 2026: YouTube live encoder settings. Add capacity for overhead and headroom, and increase the estimate for longer retention or multiple simultaneous copies.
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Use the right bitrate for your recording
When your recording and live stream share an encode
If the local archive is saved from the same encoded output sent to YouTube, the live stream bitrate gives a reasonable estimate. For example, at a constant 17 Mbps, continuous recording is about 184 decimal GB per day.
When local recording has separate settings
Some recording workflows use separate quality settings, or variable-bitrate or quality-based encoding. In that case, a live bitrate recommendation may not represent the size of local files. Record a representative gaming session with the settings you intend to use, note its duration and file size, and extrapolate. Variable-bitrate game footage can vary in size from one session to another.
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Do not substitute upload recommendations for live rates
YouTube publishes distinct recommendations for live ingestion and uploaded video files. Its SDR upload guidance lists 12 Mbps for 1080p high-frame-rate video and 24 Mbps for 1440p high-frame-rate video; those upload figures are not the H.264 live rates used in the examples above. Check the appropriate codec, resolution, and frame-rate row for your workflow: YouTube recommended upload encoding settings. YouTube’s live table also varies by codec, so do not apply the H.264 examples to AV1 or H.265 without checking their rows.
Decide how much footage to retain
Set a retention period before buying storage. At 17 Mbps, for example, the estimate is about 184 decimal GB per day; retaining 30 days would therefore require about 5.5 decimal TB before overhead, headroom, or extra copies. Multiply the result by the number of copies you want to keep.
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- Decide whether a local VOD archive is necessary and how many days or months it should retain.
- Estimate daily and annual volume from the local recording bitrate, then multiply for each additional copy.
- For a physical drive or NAS, compare usable capacity after any redundancy, cost per usable terabyte, expansion options, and how you will recover from drive failure.
- Keep headroom and validate the estimate against a sample recording made with the intended settings.
Do not rely on one uninterrupted YouTube VOD as your archive
YouTube says it can automatically archive live streams under 12 hours and recommends recording a local archive as a backup. It warns that streams exceeding 12 hours may not be captured at all. A continuous 24/7 broadcast should therefore not be treated as a dependable single, complete platform VOD. See YouTube Help: Archive live streams for the platform’s guidance.
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