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Recording Storage Calculator

Estimate how much disk space your screen recording will take, based on resolution, frame rate, bitrate, and length — so you don't run out of drive space mid-course.

Resolution

Frame rate

Video bitrate (Mbps)

Auto-filled from your resolution/frame rate choice — edit if your recorder reports a different bitrate.

Audio bitrate (kbps)

Recording length — hours

minutes

Estimate only — actual file size depends on your encoder, codec (H.264 vs H.265/AV1), and scene complexity. H.265/AV1 encodes typically run 30–50% smaller than H.264 at the same visual quality.

How this is calculated

File size = (video bitrate + audio bitrate) × recording length, converted from bits to bytes. This is the same math your recording software uses internally — the main source of error is the bitrate estimate itself, since actual encoders adjust bitrate based on how much motion and detail is on screen. Static slides compress much smaller than full-motion webcam video at the same nominal bitrate.

Typical bitrates by resolution

These starting points are based on YouTube's published recommended upload bitrates for standard dynamic range video, a reasonable proxy for "good enough for course delivery" quality: 720p ≈ 5 Mbps, 1080p ≈ 8 Mbps, 1440p ≈ 16 Mbps, 4K ≈ 35–45 Mbps, roughly 1.5× higher at 60fps than at 30fps.