Estimate your station’s outgoing data with total bitrate in Mbps × streaming hours × 0.45 = approximate decimal GB. A continuous 1 Mbps stream uses about 0.45 GB per hour, or 10.8 GB per day. If your stream includes video as well as audio, add both bitrates before calculating.
How much data does streaming use?
The estimate depends on the bitrate your encoder actually sends and how long it streams. The 0.45 factor converts megabits per second into approximate decimal gigabytes per hour. These are calculations, not measured traffic figures; protocol overhead, reconnects and bitrate changes can raise or alter actual usage.
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| Outgoing bitrate | Approximate data per hour | Approximate data per 24 hours |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Mbps | 0.45 GB | 10.8 GB |
| 1.5 Mbps | 0.675 GB | 16.2 GB |
Figures use decimal GB (1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes), which is common for ISP data caps. If your provider reports binary GiB, convert bytes using 1,073,741,824 bytes per GiB instead.
How to calculate your station’s upload
- Find the outgoing bitrate. Use the total rate reported by your encoder. If audio and video are reported separately, add them. For a variable-rate stream, use a representative average or plan around a higher sustained rate.
- Set the streaming duration in hours. For continuous streaming, multiply days by 24. For example, 30 days is 720 hours.
- Multiply bitrate × hours × 0.45. The result is an approximate decimal GB total.
- Allow for variation. Treat the result as a planning estimate, not an exact billable total; overhead and reconnects can add traffic.
Example: a month at 1.5 Mbps
For a total outgoing bitrate of 1.5 Mbps streamed continuously for 30 days: 1.5 × 24 × 30 × 0.45 ≈ 486 GB. If 1.5 Mbps is only the audio bitrate and you also send video, calculate with the combined audio-and-video rate instead.
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Count audio and video, not just the radio audio
A still image or visualizer sent as video contributes data too. Use the combined outgoing bitrate whenever the stream contains both tracks; calculating from audio alone will understate usage.
As an audio-only illustration, YouTube recommends 128 kbps stereo audio in its encoder guidance. At that rate, the audio track alone works out to about 57.6 MB per hour, or 1.38 GB per day, before overhead. It is not a universal total bitrate for radio streams: add any outgoing video bitrate. See YouTube’s live encoder settings guidance.
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Station upload is not viewer playback data
This formula estimates the station’s outgoing contribution to YouTube. It does not multiply usage by the number of listeners or count each viewer’s playback. YouTube transcodes live streams into multiple output formats so viewers can watch across devices and networks; that delivery is distinct from the station’s upload. See Google’s live YouTube content delivery documentation.
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Check the bitrate and stream health
YouTube’s current guidance recommends testing upload bitrate and stream quality before going live, then monitoring stream health during the broadcast. Its recommended advanced settings include RTMP or RTMPS ingestion, AAC or MP3 audio, constant bitrate encoding, and 128 kbps for stereo audio. YouTube recommends RTMPS because it encrypts data to Google’s servers. The video bitrate tables on its guidance page are for video resolutions and frame rates; do not apply a video-resolution target automatically to an audio-focused station. Use the actual configuration and outgoing rate reported by your encoder.
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Or let it run in the cloud
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