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To estimate how much storage a week of continuous YouTube-stream video needs, multiply the total bitrate of the file you will save by 604,800 seconds, then divide by 8 to convert bits to bytes. At a sustained total bitrate of 1 Mbps, a week takes about 75.6 GB in decimal units. Use the local recording’s bitrate—not a viewer’s YouTube playback quality—and leave extra space for overhead and other files.
Use the bitrate of the file you will actually store
The calculation depends on the bitrate written to your local recording. That may be the incoming stream bitrate if your software records the stream without re-encoding, or a different bitrate if it records a separately encoded copy. A YouTube viewer’s playback rendition is not a reliable basis for estimating the size of your local file.
YouTube says it automatically transcodes a live stream into different output formats for viewers. That describes the versions YouTube makes available for playback, not the size or bitrate of the creator’s local source recording. See YouTube’s live encoder settings and bitrate guidance.
Calculate storage for seven continuous days
- Find the recording bitrate. Use the bitrate of the file being saved. If video and audio are listed separately, add their bitrates first.
- Multiply by the recording duration. Seven uninterrupted days equal 604,800 seconds.
- Convert bits to bytes. Divide the result by 8.
- Convert bytes to storage units. For decimal GB, divide by 1,000,000,000; for decimal TB, divide by 1,000,000,000,000.
- Add practical headroom. The estimate does not include container overhead, filesystem use, other files, or extra recording capacity.
Formula: estimated bytes = total recording bitrate (bits per second) × 604,800 ÷ 8.
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For a quick estimate, each sustained 1 Mbps of total bitrate requires 75.6 GB decimal per week. This follows from the formula; it is a calculation, not a published YouTube statistic.
Examples using YouTube live bitrate recommendations
The figures below are YouTube Help recommendations for live ingest. YouTube Help does not display a publication year for these values. The weekly sizes are estimates calculated from the listed video bitrate plus 128 Kbps stereo audio; they exclude overhead and are not measured file sizes.
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| Live video configuration | Recommended video bitrate | Total with 128 Kbps audio | Estimated size for 7 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| H.264 720p30 or 720p60 | 8 Mbps | 8.128 Mbps | About 614 GB decimal |
| AV1/H.265 1080p30 | 10 Mbps | 10.128 Mbps | About 765 GB decimal |
| AV1/H.265 1080p60 | 12 Mbps | 12.128 Mbps | About 917 GB decimal |
| H.264 1080p30 | 14 Mbps | 14.128 Mbps | About 1.067 TB decimal |
| H.264 1080p60 | 17 Mbps | 17.128 Mbps | About 1.294 TB decimal |
| H.264 1440p30 | 21 Mbps | 21.128 Mbps | About 1.597 TB decimal |
| H.264 1440p60 | 34 Mbps | 34.128 Mbps | About 2.581 TB decimal |
| H.264 4K/2160p30 | 42 Mbps | 42.128 Mbps | About 3.184 TB decimal |
| H.264 4K/2160p60 | 50 Mbps | 50.128 Mbps | About 3.789 TB decimal |
For example, 10 Mbps video plus 128 Kbps audio totals 10.128 Mbps and works out to about 765 GB decimal for a week. At 14 Mbps video plus 128 Kbps stereo audio, the total is 14.128 Mbps, or about 1.067 TB decimal.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsUse the row that matches the encoder’s selected resolution, frame rate, and codec when those settings describe the locally saved stream. If the recording has a different bitrate, use that bitrate in the formula instead. YouTube’s separate recommended upload encoding settings apply to files uploaded to YouTube; they are not a substitute for the local recording bitrate unless they describe the file you are storing.
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Plan for the actual archive, not just one week
Storage scales linearly with both bitrate and time: doubling the bitrate or keeping twice as many weeks doubles the estimate. Multiply the one-week result by the number of weeks you intend to retain, then reserve additional capacity for overhead, other content, and recording headroom. A high-capacity external drive or NAS is a practical category to consider for a local archive; the right choice depends on the retention period and the amount of footage you keep.
- Check whether your recorder saves the incoming stream or creates a separate encode.
- Use the selected recording bitrate, and include audio if it is separate.
- Consider whether the bitrate is constant or variable; a variable-bitrate recording may not match the estimate exactly.
- Keep enough free capacity that the drive is not filled by the recording before the intended retention period ends.
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