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Video bitrate calculator - file size, bitrate and recording time

Find out how big a video will be, which bitrate keeps it under the Discord or Gmail limit, and how much footage fits into a given file size - with YouTube recommended bitrates built in.

  • Free
  • No sign-up
  • Private
  • Runs locally
Mb/s

Result

File size
614.4 MB
585.9 MiB
Per minute
61.4 MB
Per hour
3.69 GB

YouTube recommended bitrates (H.264, SDR)

Resolution24-30 fps48-60 fps10 min (30 fps)
2160p (3840×2160)40 Mb/s60 Mb/s3.03 GB
1440p (2560×1440)16 Mb/s24 Mb/s1.23 GB
1080p (1920×1080)8 Mb/s12 Mb/s628.8 MB
720p (1280×720)5 Mb/s7.5 Mb/s403.8 MB
480p (854×480)2.5 Mb/s4 Mb/s216.3 MB
360p (640×360)1 Mb/s1.5 Mb/s103.8 MB

For 4K YouTube gives 35-45 Mbps (24-30 fps) and 53-68 Mbps (48-60 fps) - midpoints shown. Audio: 384 kbps stereo (AAC-LC). 1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes.

How to calculate video file size

  1. 1.

    Choose what to calculate

    “File size” from bitrate and duration, “Bitrate” from a target size, or “Duration” - how much footage fits into a file.

  2. 2.

    Enter the bitrate

    Type the video bitrate in Mb/s and pick the audio bitrate in kb/s, or select a YouTube recommendation for your resolution and frame rate.

  3. 3.

    Enter the duration or size

    Fill in hours, minutes and seconds, or a target size in MB or GB. Shortcut buttons set Discord 10 MB, Gmail 25 MB, CD, DVD 4.7 GB or Blu-ray 25 GB.

  4. 4.

    Read the result

    Results update as you type. Below them is a table of YouTube bitrates with the size of a 10 minute video at each resolution.

The formula: bitrate × time = file size

Bitrate is the amount of data per second of video. File size depends only on the total bitrate and the duration:

size [bytes] = (video kbps + audio kbps) × 1000 × seconds ÷ 8

Example 1: 10 minutes of 1080p at 8 Mbps with 384 kbps audio: (8000 + 384) × 1000 × 600 ÷ 8 = 628,800,000 bytes, about 629 MB.

Example 2 - Discord 10 MB: for a 60 second clip the total budget is 10,000,000 × 8 ÷ 60 ÷ 1000 ≈ 1,333 kbps. With 128 kbps audio, about 1,205 kbps is left for video. The “Good enough for” box tells you that is roughly 360p by YouTube standards, and you should leave 3-5% headroom, so set about 1,150 kbps.

Example 3 - DVD: 4.7 GB at 5 Mbps video plus 192 kbps audio holds about 2 hours (2:00:41).

Rule of thumb: 1 Mbps ≈ 7.5 MB per minute ≈ 450 MB per hour.

Which bitrate should you use? YouTube recommendations

  • 2160p (4K) - 35-45 Mbps at 24-30 fps, 53-68 Mbps at 48-60 fps.
  • 1440p - 16 Mbps / 24 Mbps.
  • 1080p - 8 Mbps / 12 Mbps.
  • 720p - 5 Mbps / 7.5 Mbps.
  • 480p - 2.5 Mbps / 4 Mbps.
  • 360p - 1 Mbps / 1.5 Mbps.

These are YouTube upload recommendations for SDR video in H.264 with AAC-LC stereo audio at 384 kbps; the calculator uses the midpoint for 4K. Newer codecs such as HEVC (H.265) and AV1 reach similar quality at roughly 30-50% lower bitrates. Live streaming in OBS uses lower values that depend on the platform and your upload speed.

MB, MiB and Mbps - do not mix up the units

  • Mbps (megabits per second) is a bitrate. One byte is 8 bits, so 8 Mbps equals 1 MB of data per second.
  • MB (megabyte) here means 1,000,000 bytes, the way disk makers and most websites count. 1 GB is 1,000,000,000 bytes.
  • MiB is 1,048,576 bytes. Windows Explorer shows sizes in MiB while labelling them “MB”, so a 629 MB file appears there as about 600 MB. The file size result shows the MiB value as a hint.

Planning a compression or a recording

Use the “Bitrate” mode to decide what to type into an encoder, then let the video compressor do the work in your browser - it applies the same formula when you set a target size in MB. When choosing a quality for the screen recorder, the “File size” mode shows that 5 Mbps produces about 38 MB per minute. If you are resizing the picture as well, the aspect ratio calculator gives the matching width and height. All calculations happen locally, with no data sent anywhere.

Frequently asked questions

How big is one minute of 1080p video?

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About 63 MB at the YouTube-recommended 8 Mbps with 384 kbps audio. Apple quotes roughly 60 MB per minute for iPhone 1080p at 30 fps in HEVC and about 130 MB in H.264 (Most Compatible).

What bitrate fits a video into 10 MB for Discord?

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Divide the size by the duration: kbps = 10,000,000 × 8 ÷ seconds ÷ 1000, then subtract the audio. For 60 seconds with 128 kbps audio that is about 1,200 kbps of video - set around 5% less to be safe.

Does a higher bitrate always mean better quality?

+
Only up to a point. Above the recommended bitrate for a resolution the difference is hard to see while the file keeps growing. The codec matters too: AV1 and HEVC look better than H.264 at the same bitrate.

Why is my real file a little bigger than the result?

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Containers such as MP4 and MKV add headers and indexes, and VBR encoding can briefly exceed the average bitrate. The difference is usually 1-3%.

How many hours of video fit on a DVD?

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About 2 hours. A single-layer DVD holds 4.7 GB, which at a total of 5.2 Mbps gives roughly 7,240 seconds.

How much disk space does an OBS recording take?

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Enter the bitrate from your OBS output settings and the planned length in “File size” mode. For example 6 Mbps video with 160 kbps audio uses about 46 MB per minute, or roughly 2.8 GB per hour.

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