A 24/7 church YouTube stream uses about 64.8 GB of outbound data per day at 6 Mbps or 108 GB per day at 10 Mbps, before protocol overhead. Those are calculated estimates for the church’s encoder sending a continuous live feed to YouTube—not the amount each viewer downloads. Looping a recorded sermon does not make the live transmission a one-time file upload.
Daily and monthly data estimates
For an uninterrupted stream, estimate the encoder’s outbound data with this formula:
Bitrate in Mbps × 10.8 = decimal GB per 24 hours
The calculation assumes the selected bitrate is sustained for all 86,400 seconds in a day. YouTube’s current Help guidance recommends the following H.264 live-ingest rates:
| Example stream setting | YouTube-recommended ingest bitrate | Estimated outbound data per day | Estimated outbound data per 30-day month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 720p at 30 fps | 6 Mbps | 64.8 GB | 1.944 TB |
| 1080p at 30 fps | 10 Mbps | 108 GB | 3.24 TB |
The daily and monthly totals are calculations from YouTube’s recommended bitrates, not figures published by YouTube or measurements of a particular church’s stream. Monthly totals assume 30 days. Actual transfer can vary with bitrate fluctuations and protocol overhead. YouTube recommends constant-bitrate encoding for its listed RTMP/RTMPS encoder settings; the recommended rate is not a guarantee of a specific stream’s measured traffic. YouTube’s live encoder settings
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Why a looping sermon still uses continuous data
If a computer or encoder plays a recording into a live stream, it sends the live feed to YouTube for as long as the channel remains live. Repeating the same sermon does not limit network use to the sermon file’s size or its original upload. The live transmission continues through every loop.
This estimate is for a continuously encoded live stream. Uploading sermons as ordinary on-demand videos and embedding or playlisting them is a different workflow; the live-ingest estimates above do not apply to that viewing model.
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Encoder upload is not viewer download
The daily estimates describe data going from the church’s encoder to YouTube. They do not describe the data delivered to every viewer. YouTube says it transcodes live streams into multiple playback formats, so a viewer’s data depends on the format their device receives and how long they watch. Without those details, a precise viewer-download total cannot be calculated from the encoder bitrate alone. YouTube Help on live streaming
How much upload bandwidth to plan for
YouTube recommends keeping 20% upload headroom above the total outgoing stream bitrate. For one stream at the example rates, that means planning for approximately:
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- 720p30 at 6 Mbps: 7.2 Mbps of available upload bandwidth.
- 1080p30 at 10 Mbps: 12 Mbps of available upload bandwidth.
These are planning figures for the stream plus YouTube’s recommended headroom, not guarantees of service quality. Include other simultaneous streams and network traffic when assessing whether your connection has enough sustained upload capacity. YouTube’s live encoder settings
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Keeping a church stream connected
YouTube recommends Ethernet for live streaming from a computer. A wired connection can support reliability, but it does not reduce the stream bitrate or the resulting data transfer. Test the setup and monitor stream health before relying on a continuous broadcast. YouTube Help on live streaming YouTube live streaming troubleshooting
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Data-use troubleshooting
- Your monthly total is higher than expected: Check how many hours the encoder streamed and whether it ran above the assumed bitrate. The formula assumes 24 hours every day at a sustained rate and excludes overhead.
- The stream drops or playback is unstable: Check whether available upload bandwidth can sustain the outgoing bitrate with the recommended 20% headroom, account for other network traffic, and use Ethernet for a computer encoder when possible.
- You are estimating what a congregation will use: Do not apply the encoder’s daily total to viewers. Viewer data depends on playback format and watch time after YouTube transcodes the stream.
- You are comparing a sermon file with live-stream data: A file’s size measures a stored recording or upload; a live stream’s outbound data accumulates continuously while it is being sent.
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