Estimate video storage from bitrate, duration, codec, and resolution. Plan capacity for surveillance, streaming, or media libraries.
Video is one of the most storage-intensive data types. A single 4K camera at 25 Mbps generates over 10 GB per hour, and a 100-camera surveillance system can produce over 1 TB per day. Accurately estimating video storage requirements is critical for provisioning NAS/SAN systems, budgeting cloud storage, and planning archive retention.
This calculator estimates video file size and total storage from bitrate, duration, codec efficiency, and resolution. It supports common codecs like H.264, H.265/HEVC, VP9, and AV1, each offering different compression efficiency. H.265 typically achieves 30–50% size reduction compared to H.264 at equivalent visual quality.
Whether you're planning a security camera system, estimating a video streaming platform's storage needs, or budgeting for a media production archive, this tool gives you accurate storage projections based on your specific parameters.
By calculating this metric accurately, DevOps and engineering professionals gain actionable insights that drive system reliability, scalability, and operational excellence across environments.
Video storage costs scale rapidly with camera count, resolution, and retention period. This calculator prevents over-provisioning (wasted budget) and under-provisioning (lost footage) by giving you precise storage estimates. Data-driven tracking enables evidence-based infrastructure decisions, reducing the risk of over-provisioning costs or under-provisioning that leads to performance bottlenecks. This quantitative approach replaces reactive troubleshooting with proactive monitoring, enabling engineering teams to maintain service level objectives and minimize unplanned system downtime.
storage_GB = bitrate_Mbps × 3600 / 8 × hours / 1024; total = storage_per_stream × stream_count
Result: 33.75 GB/camera/day; 540 GB total/day
8 Mbps × 3,600 sec/hr / 8 bits/byte = 3,600 MB/hr = 3.52 GB/hr. 24 hours = 84.38 GB/day per camera. 16 cameras = 1,350 GB (1.32 TB) per day. With 30-day retention: ~39.6 TB total storage needed.
H.264/AVC: The most widely supported codec. Baseline for storage calculations. H.265/HEVC: 30–50% smaller than H.264 at equivalent quality. Requires more decode CPU. VP9: Google's open codec, similar efficiency to H.265. Used by YouTube. AV1: Newest generation, 20–30% better than H.265, but very CPU-intensive encoding.
Multiply per-camera daily storage by camera count and retention days. A 32-camera 1080p system at 4 Mbps H.265 with 30-day retention needs: 1.69 GB/hr × 24 × 32 × 30 = ~38.9 TB. Add RAID overhead (30–50%) for the final disk requirement.
Cloud storage eliminates hardware management but incurs ongoing costs. At $0.023/GB/month, 40 TB costs $920/month ($11,040/year). On-premise NAS hardware costs $3,000–$8,000 upfront but has lower annual costs. Break-even is typically 1–2 years.
For H.264: 4–8 Mbps for good quality, 8–15 Mbps for high quality. For H.265: 2–4 Mbps for good quality, 4–8 Mbps for high quality. Surveillance cameras typically use 2–6 Mbps at 1080p with motion-adaptive encoding.
A 4K camera at 15–25 Mbps (H.264) uses 162–270 GB/day. With H.265, the same quality requires 80–135 GB/day. 4K cameras need roughly 4× the storage of 1080p cameras at equivalent quality settings.
Audio adds relatively little—typically 64–256 kbps versus video at 2–25 Mbps. Audio adds 28–110 MB per hour, or 1–5% of video size. It's usually negligible for storage planning but should be included for accuracy.
Constant Bitrate (CBR) uses the same bitrate regardless of scene complexity, giving predictable file sizes. Variable Bitrate (VBR) adjusts bitrate to scene complexity, producing smaller files for static scenes but potentially larger files for complex motion.
Typical retention: 7–30 days for general security, 30–90 days for regulated environments (banking, healthcare), and 1+ year for high-security facilities. Check local regulations for mandated minimum retention periods.
Yes: upgrade codec (H.264 → H.265), use VBR encoding, enable motion-triggered recording, reduce frame rate for non-critical cameras (30fps → 15fps), and apply scene-adaptive bitrate. Each measure can save 20–50% independently.