Video Bitrate Calculator
Calculate video bitrate and file size
Video Settings
Streaming Platform Recommendations
| Platform | 1080p | 4K |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 8-12 Mbps | 35-68 Mbps |
| Vimeo | 10-20 Mbps | 30-60 Mbps |
| Twitch | 4.5-6 Mbps | N/A |
| Netflix | 5-8 Mbps | 15-25 Mbps |
Video Bitrate — Pro Notes
Bits-Per-Pixel Is the Real Benchmark
Raw bitrate numbers are meaningless without normalizing for resolution and frame rate. The useful metric is bits per pixel per frame (bpp): roughly 0.10 bpp for H.264 at acceptable quality, 0.07 for HEVC, and 0.05 for AV1. A 1080p30 file at 5 Mbps works out to about 0.079 bpp — fine for HEVC, marginal for H.264. Apply this check before assuming a given Mbps target will look good.
CBR vs. VBR: Wrong Choice Wastes Budget
Constant bitrate (CBR) is required for live streaming and broadcast SDI, where buffers are fixed. For file delivery or archival, VBR — especially two-pass VBR — allocates more bits to complex scenes and fewer to static ones, often matching CBR quality at 20-30% lower average bitrate. Using CBR for an archival master wastes storage; using VBR for a live RTMP stream will cause buffer underruns during peaks. The calculator gives a bitrate figure but cannot distinguish the mode that's appropriate for your workflow.
Codec Efficiency Hits a Diminishing Return Wall
AV1 is roughly 30-50% more efficient than H.264 on paper, but the gains compress as bitrate rises. At very high bitrates all three codecs converge toward near-lossless quality and the codec choice barely matters visually. The efficiency gap is widest at the low-bitrate end — exactly where streaming services operate. For mastering or archiving at high bitrates, codec efficiency is a secondary concern; depth (10-bit), color space (BT.2020/HDR), and container compatibility matter more.
Frequently Asked Questions
What bitrate should I use for 4K 60fps video upload to YouTube?
YouTube recommends 35-68 Mbps for 4K 60fps SDR uploads using H.264, and 15-30 Mbps for H.265/HEVC at comparable quality. YouTube re-encodes all uploads with VP9 or AV1, so uploading at a higher source bitrate provides the encoder with more quality headroom. For highest final output quality, upload at 50+ Mbps with H.264 or 25+ Mbps with H.265, using constant quality (CRF) encoding rather than CBR.
How much smaller is H.265 (HEVC) compared to H.264 at the same quality?
H.265 achieves approximately 40-50% better compression efficiency than H.264 at equivalent perceptual quality, meaning a 10 Mbps H.265 stream looks roughly comparable to a 20 Mbps H.264 stream. AV1 improves further by another 20-30% over H.265. The trade-off is encoding complexity: H.265 and AV1 require significantly more CPU/GPU time to encode at high quality, though hardware encoders on modern GPUs (NVENC, AMF, QuickSync) greatly accelerate this.
What is the relationship between resolution, frame rate, and bitrate?
Raw (uncompressed) data rate scales linearly with pixel count and frame rate: doubling either doubles bandwidth. Codec compression adds a non-linear quality factor. A rough approximation is: 1080p 30fps H.264 web delivery at 8 Mbps; 1080p 60fps at 12 Mbps; 4K 30fps at 35 Mbps; 4K 60fps at 55 Mbps. Complex scenes with motion require higher bitrates than static content at the same settings.
What bitrate do professional streaming services use for 4K HDR?
Netflix streams 4K HDR at 15-25 Mbps using their custom optimized VP9 or AV1 pipeline, achieving quality comparable to 50-80 Mbps H.264. Disney+ and Apple TV+ use HEVC, with 4K HDR streams at 20-40 Mbps. Amazon Prime uses AV1 for 4K at 15-20 Mbps on compatible devices. These optimized multi-pass encodes with per-title encoding are far more efficient than single-pass real-time encoding used in OBS or Premiere.
Why does ProRes have a much higher bitrate than H.264 at the same resolution?
ProRes 422 is an intermediate (mezzanine) codec designed for editing, not delivery. It applies only light intraframe (I-frame only) compression — no temporal prediction across frames — preserving full chroma sampling (4:2:2) and avoiding the blocking artifacts that accumulate during multi-generation H.264 re-encodes. ProRes 422 at 1080p 60fps runs about 220 Mbps; H.264 at the same resolution needs only 10-20 Mbps for equivalent delivery quality. Editors use ProRes for the editing and mastering workflow, then export H.264/H.265 for final delivery.