The Tool Desk
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Choose a target bitrate that matches your video settings
YouTube’s recommended video bitrate depends on resolution, frame rate, and codec. The figures below are recommended ingest bitrates—not estimates of your household’s upload speed and not guarantees of stable delivery. YouTube lists minimum values as well; consult its current encoder settings and full bitrate table for those values and any updates.
| Resolution and frame rate | AV1 or H.265 recommended | H.264 recommended |
|---|---|---|
| 2160p (4K), 60 fps | 35 Mbps | 50 Mbps |
| 2160p (4K), 30 fps | 30 Mbps | 42 Mbps |
| 1440p, 60 fps | 24 Mbps | 34 Mbps |
| 1440p, 30 fps | 15 Mbps | 21 Mbps |
| 1080p, 60 fps | 12 Mbps | 17 Mbps |
| 1080p, 30 fps | 10 Mbps | 14 Mbps |
| 720p, 60 fps | 6 Mbps | 8 Mbps |
| 720p, 30 fps | 6 Mbps | 8 Mbps |
| 480p, 30 fps | 3 Mbps | 4 Mbps |
| 360p, 30 fps | 3 Mbps | 4 Mbps |
For example, if you plan to send 1080p at 30 fps using H.264, 14 Mbps is YouTube’s recommended video bitrate. It is a quality target, not a claim that 14 Mbps will be stable on your connection. The capacity available during the stream matters more than a speed test taken when the household is idle.
Estimate what the shared connection can support
Run an upload speed test under conditions close to the stream: use the same wired or Wi-Fi connection and, where practical, keep normal household devices active. YouTube recommends testing upload bitrate; its guidance also says to rehearse with similar motion and audio before going live and monitor stream health during the event.
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OBS’s connection troubleshooting guidance, dated 2024-09-30, gives 75% of total upload speed as a good starting point for setting bitrate. Treat that as a starting point only. On a shared line, other people’s video calls, cloud backups, downloads, and streaming can use bandwidth during your broadcast, so the speed-test total is not necessarily available to OBS.
- If your intended YouTube-recommended bitrate is comfortably within the upload capacity that remains available during normal household use, test at that target.
- If household use makes upload capacity fluctuate or leaves little headroom, begin below the theoretical limit and test. Stability is more useful than selecting a higher bitrate that the connection cannot maintain.
- If the stream is unstable, lower the video bitrate and test again. If necessary, reduce output resolution or frame rate as well, then use the matching YouTube recommendation as a new target.
Set OBS and test before the real broadcast
- Choose your output. Decide on resolution, frame rate, and a video codec that your encoder supports. Pick the corresponding bitrate row in the table rather than applying one bitrate to every stream.
- Set the encoder for YouTube. YouTube’s published settings support RTMP/RTMPS ingest, H.264, H.265, or AV1 video, constant bitrate (CBR), and frame rates up to 60 fps. Set the keyframe interval to the recommended 2 seconds; YouTube says it should not exceed 4 seconds. Check YouTube’s encoder settings page for its current details.
- Enter a cautious bitrate. Use the recommendation for your codec and output as the quality target, but reduce it if shared upload capacity cannot sustain it. OBS’s 75% figure is only a starting point based on total upload speed, not a reserved share of a household connection.
- Run a private or unlisted test. Use the same scenes, audio, motion, and other stream conditions you expect during the broadcast. A static screen may not represent the bandwidth and encoding demands of fast-moving content.
- Watch both OBS and YouTube. Check OBS’s dropped-frame count and YouTube’s stream-health messages during the test. YouTube also reports configuration issues such as bitrate and keyframe warnings through its live-streaming tools and API documentation: LiveStreams | YouTube Live Streaming API.
- Adjust and repeat. If frames are dropping or YouTube reports an issue, lower bitrate first; if needed, lower resolution or frame rate and repeat the test. Keep the settings that remain stable while the connection is being used normally.
Diagnose dropped frames without confusing network problems
OBS describes dropped frames as a sign that the connection to the remote server is unstable or cannot keep up with the configured bitrate. The fix depends on where the limitation is:
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- Shared upload capacity is insufficient: Lower the video bitrate and retest while other devices are active. Dynamic bitrate in OBS can mitigate congestion by lowering bitrate automatically, but that reduces video quality and does not remove the underlying network cause.
- Local Wi-Fi is unstable: OBS notes that Wi-Fi may be unstable for streaming and recommends a wired connection when Wi-Fi is suspected. A Cat6 Ethernet cable can be one practical way to test a wired connection. Ethernet may improve reliability between your computer and router, but it will not increase the upload capacity supplied by your ISP or eliminate congestion farther along the route.
- The ingest route or ISP is the issue: OBS suggests trying a different ingest server where applicable, enabling network optimizations and TCP pacing on Windows, and testing dynamic bitrate. If problems persist after troubleshooting, contact your ISP; congestion or route changes may be outside your control.
Do not assume one remedy addresses every cause: a lower bitrate helps when the stream exceeds stable upload capacity, while Ethernet addresses only possible local Wi-Fi instability. Neither guarantees a fix for upstream congestion.
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