Multiply the total bitrate of the local recording by 604,800 seconds, then divide by 8 to estimate bytes for seven uninterrupted days. For a quick decimal estimate, each 1 Mbps of sustained total bitrate needs 75.6 GB per week. Use the bitrate of the file you will actually save—not a viewer’s playback quality—and leave extra capacity for overhead and headroom.
Use the bitrate of the file you will store
A YouTube live stream and a local recording are not necessarily the same file. If your recorder saves the incoming stream without changing it, its bitrate may be close to the ingest bitrate. If it re-encodes or otherwise changes the recording, use the saved file’s bitrate instead. YouTube says it transcodes live streams into different output formats for viewers; those playback renditions do not determine the size of your local archive. YouTube’s live encoder guidance covers ingest settings, while its upload encoding guidance addresses files uploaded to YouTube.
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Calculate seven days of storage
- Find the total recording bitrate. Use the bitrate of the local file. If video and audio are listed separately, add them first. Convert Kbps to Mbps by dividing by 1,000.
- Use the recording duration. Seven uninterrupted days equal 604,800 seconds.
- Calculate bytes. Multiply total bitrate in bits per second by 604,800, then divide by 8.
- Convert units. Divide decimal bytes by 1,000,000,000 for GB or 1,000,000,000,000 for TB.
- Plan headroom. The calculation excludes container overhead, filesystem use, other files, and recording headroom, so do not treat the result as the drive capacity to buy.
Formula: estimated bytes = total recording bitrate (bits/second) × recording duration (seconds) ÷ 8.
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Use YouTube’s live bitrate figures as inputs—not as a file-size guarantee
The following are YouTube Help’s recommended live ingest video bitrates. The referenced page does not display a publication year. Add audio bitrate to the video bitrate before estimating storage.
| Codec and live configuration | Recommended video bitrate | Video-only estimate for seven days |
|---|---|---|
| H.264 720p30 or 720p60 | 8 Mbps | 604.8 GB decimal |
| AV1/H.265 1080p30 | 10 Mbps | 756 GB decimal |
| AV1/H.265 1080p60 | 12 Mbps | 907.2 GB decimal |
| H.264 1080p30 | 14 Mbps | 1.0584 TB decimal |
| H.264 1080p60 | 17 Mbps | 1.2852 TB decimal |
| H.264 1440p30 | 21 Mbps | 1.5876 TB decimal |
| H.264 1440p60 | 34 Mbps | 2.5704 TB decimal |
| H.264 4K/2160p30 | 42 Mbps | 3.1752 TB decimal |
| H.264 4K/2160p60 | 50 Mbps | 3.78 TB decimal |
These video-only estimates apply the seven-day formula to YouTube Help’s recommended ingest rates; they are not measured local files and exclude audio and overhead. YouTube Help lists stereo audio at 128 Kbps. Add 0.128 Mbps to the video rate where that audio setting applies.
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Worked examples with stereo audio
- 10 Mbps video + 128 Kbps audio: 10.128 Mbps total × 75.6 GB per Mbps = about 765 GB decimal per week.
- 14 Mbps video + 128 Kbps audio: 14.128 Mbps total × 75.6 GB per Mbps = about 1.067 TB decimal per week.
These are estimates computed from the cited live settings. A variable-bitrate or separately encoded local recording may have a different average size.
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Storage scales linearly with both bitrate and time. Once you have the weekly estimate, multiply it by the number of weeks you intend to retain. For a useful planning figure, compare the exact resolution, frame rate, codec, selected bitrate, audio bitrate, recording method (saving the incoming stream or re-encoding), and retention period. A high-capacity external drive or NAS is a storage category to consider for a local archive; no particular model or price is established here.
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- This USB drive provides plug and play simplicity with the included 18 inch USB 3.0 cable
- The available storage capacity may vary.
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