8K, honestly

8K video hosting without compression.
The file you upload is the file that plays.

Vimeo will only build a 5K to 8K transcode when the upload is HDR above 5K, and it excludes every phone from above-4K playback. YouTube re-encodes everything and publishes no delivered bitrate at any resolution. Here is what each platform does with an 8K master, and what happens when nothing is re-encoded at all.

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Updated September 2026

The short answer

Once nothing is re-encoded, 8K
stops being a hosting problem.

Every platform that transcodes has to decide, in advance, which resolutions and bitrates it is willing to produce. That decision is the ceiling, and at 8K it is a low one. A platform that stores your file and serves those same bytes has no such decision to make, so there is no ceiling below the file itself.

uncompressed.io has no encode step anywhere in the pipeline. There is no adaptive ladder, no rendition list, no lower version standing by. The player is handed a signed link to the stored master and plays it. The practical consequences are worth being exact about, because they cut both ways.

50 GB

per file

the ceiling on a single upload, checked in the browser before the transfer starts

transcodes

no ladder, no renditions, no lower version of your image

22 Mbps

Vimeo's highest published rate

its 4K H.264 maximum. Above 4K, Vimeo publishes no figure at all

41 min

of 8K at 160 Mbps

how much of YouTube's own top SDR 8K recommendation fits inside 50 GB

The good consequence: your grade, your grain, your 8K detail and your chosen bitrate arrive as you encoded them. The honest one: with nothing to fall back to, a thin connection buffers rather than quietly switching the viewer to a mushy version. And the hard one, which no host can engineer around: 8K plays only when the viewer’s own hardware decodes it.

What Vimeo does with an 8K file

There is no 8K transcode
unless it is HDR above 5K.

This is the single most useful fact on this page, and it comes from Vimeo’s own help centre rather than from us.

Vimeo’s article on above-4K playback states two things. First, that videos beyond 4K will be delivered using the HEVC video codec. Second, and this is the sentence that decides the matter, that Vimeo will only generate a 5K to 8K transcode if the creator uploaded the video as an HDR video with greater than 5K resolution. Read it as a condition, because that is what it is. An 8K SDR master, which is what most 8K deliverables are, does not qualify. It is accepted, it is re-encoded, and what comes back down to the viewer is drawn from the published ladder, which ends at 4K.

That ladder is worth reading alongside it. Vimeo publishes a maximum video bitrate for each rendition: 22 Mbps for 4K on the H.264 ladder, 16 Mbps for 4K on the HDR and HEVC ladder. Vimeo adds, in its own words, that the bitrates listed for each resolution are a maximum, and that a video could transcode at a lower bitrate depending on the complexity of the image. Above 4K, no bitrate figure is published on any Vimeo page we could fetch. Vimeo’s pricing page markets the platform as streaming up to 4K Ultra HD, which is the most accurate line about 8K that Vimeo currently prints.

The number people quote, and what it actually is

Vimeo’s recommended upload settings list 8K at 50 to 80 Mbps. That is an instruction for the file you hand Vimeo, not a description of what a viewer receives. It appears on the recommended-upload page, next to 4K at 30 to 60 Mbps, while the separate delivery article caps 4K at 22 Mbps. An upload recommendation and a delivered bitrate are different measurements and anyone quoting the first as the second is misreading the page.

What YouTube does with an 8K file

It always re-encodes,
and publishes no delivered bitrate.

YouTube is straightforward about the first half. Its help centre states that YouTube always re-encodes videos to optimize their playback quality, and that an upload is initially processed in low quality, with higher resolutions taking longer to appear. YouTube also publishes 8K upload recommendations in four flavours: 80 to 160 Mbps for SDR at standard frame rate, 120 to 240 for SDR at high frame rate, 100 to 200 for HDR at standard frame rate, and 150 to 300 for HDR at high frame rate.

The second half is the part that matters for an 8K delivery decision. YouTube publishes no delivered video bitrate at any resolution, 8K included. We re-checked that across its help pages today. The only official statement about a delivery codec we could find is Google’s own developer page saying VP9 is used by YouTube, with no resolution or rate attached. So when someone asks what an 8K master looks like after YouTube gets it, there is no published number to answer with. That is not a gotcha, it is simply the state of the documentation, and it is a poor basis for a client deliverable.

Vimeo

YouTube

What happensto an 8K upload

Re-encoded into several formats.A 5K to 8K transcode only whenthe upload is HDR above 5K.

Always re-encoded.Processed in low quality first,higher resolutions take hours.

Stored as uploaded.No encode step anywherein the pipeline.

Delivery bitratepublished at 8K

None above 4K.The 4K rows are 22 Mbps H.264and 16 Mbps HEVC, as maximums.

None, at any resolution.

Your file's own rate.There is no ladder to publish.

Delivery codecabove 4K

HEVC (H.265).

VP9 is the codec Google namesfor YouTube. No resolutionor rate is attached to it.

The codec you uploaded.The browser plays whatthe browser can decode.

Recommended8K upload rate

50 to 80 Mbps.

80 to 160 Mbps SDR,up to 150 to 300 Mbpsfor HDR at high frame rate.

No recommendation.Upload the file you finished.

Per-fileceiling

300 GB and 24 hours per file,regardless of plan.

256 GB or 12 hours,whichever is less.

50 GB per file.The check runs in the browserbefore the transfer starts.

Bandwidthto viewers

2 TB per month onself-serve accounts.

Not published on thepages fetched for this guide.

Not metered.Storage is the only meterin the terms.

Vimeo and YouTube figures from their own help centres and pricing pages, fetched 5 September 2026. Upload recommendations are shown as upload recommendations; neither platform publishes a delivered bitrate above 4K.

Where to host 8K video at full bitrate

Full bitrate is a checkable claim
only when nothing re-encodes.

The phrase full bitrate gets used loosely. It has one testable meaning: the bytes the viewer receives are the bytes you uploaded. On a transcoding platform that can never be true, because the file the viewer gets was produced by the platform, not by you. The most a transcoding platform can offer is a published maximum, and above 4K neither Vimeo nor YouTube publishes one.

On our side there is no encode step, so the question does not arise. Your master is stored, and the player is handed the stored object. The trade is that there is no smaller rendition underneath it, so bandwidth problems show up as buffering rather than as a silent drop in quality. For an 8K review cut going to a colourist or a client on a wired connection, that is the behaviour you want. For an 8K file going to a phone on cellular, it is not, and the next section says so plainly.

The one hard limit on our side is 50 GB per file. That is a real ceiling and it deserves arithmetic rather than reassurance. Below, the two platforms’ own published 8K upload recommendations are used as realistic 8K data rates, and turned into runtime.

Video bit rate

Runtime that fits in 50 GB

Vimeo 8Krecommendation, low end

50 Mbps

about 2 h 13 min

Vimeo 8Krecommendation, high end

80 Mbps

about 1 h 23 min

YouTube 8KSDR, 24 to 30 fps

80 to 160 Mbps

about 41 min to 1 h 23 min

YouTube 8KSDR, 48 to 60 fps

120 to 240 Mbps

about 28 min to 56 min

YouTube 8KHDR, 24 to 30 fps

100 to 200 Mbps

about 33 min to 1 h 7 min

YouTube 8KHDR, 48 to 60 fps

150 to 300 Mbps

about 22 min to 44 min

Runtime calculated from the published bit rates, counting 50 GB as 50 billion bytes and ignoring the audio track. The rates are the platforms' own 8K upload recommendations, used here as realistic 8K data rates, not as delivered bitrates.

For a spot, a title sequence, a music video, a trailer or a review cut, 50 GB is not the binding constraint. For an 8K feature at 60 fps in HDR it is, and the answer there is to split the delivery by reel or to send the master by another route. We would rather print the arithmetic than let someone discover the ceiling mid-upload. One more detail on that check: it runs in the browser before the transfer begins, so you learn about it immediately rather than after an hour of uploading.

Honest framing

When 8K hosting
is the wrong ask.

Most requests for 8K hosting are really requests for something else, and the something else is usually cheaper and works on more devices. It is worth checking which one you have before paying for storage.

Start with the device question, because Vimeo has already documented how narrow above-4K support is. Its above-4K article lists Safari 11 and up, Edge 15 and up with supported hardware, macOS 10.13 and Windows 10, and then excludes, in its own words, mobile devices on iOS and Android, including the Vimeo app and mobile browsers. Vimeo is not being stingy there. It is describing what the device population can decode. Any host, ours included, runs into the same wall, because decoding 8K is done by the viewer’s silicon.

Your reviewers are on phones

If notes come back from a producer on a train, the resolution you send is not the variable that matters. A 4K or 1080p master at a generous bitrate will look better on that screen than an 8K file that stutters or refuses to start. Vimeo excludes mobile from above-4K playback entirely; that exclusion is a fact about phones, not about Vimeo.

You need reach, not fidelity

If the goal is a public audience finding the work, a platform with an audience and a recommendation engine is the right tool, and its re-encode is the price of admission. Host the pristine master where it stays pristine, and publish a version where the viewers are.

The 8K is an acquisition format, not a deliverable

Plenty of 8K exists only so the edit can punch in and stabilise. If the finished piece is a 4K or 2K deliverable, host the deliverable. Nobody needs to stream your headroom.

The file is camera RAW

R3D, BRAW, ARRIRAW, X-OCN, N-RAW and ProRes RAW are not delivery formats and no browser decodes them. There is no host anywhere that streams them. Finish to HEVC or ProRes and upload that; the RAW belongs in storage, not in a player.

You want it to look identical for everyone

It will not, at any resolution, because displays and decoders differ. What a no-transcode host guarantees is that the differences come from the viewer's equipment rather than from a re-encode you never saw.

A 4K master at high bitrate would settle the argument

Very often the complaint that started the 8K search was macroblocking or banding, not a lack of pixels. A 4K master served untouched fixes that and plays on far more machines. Resolution is the expensive answer to a bitrate problem.

The workflow that works

Finish to HEVC or ProRes,
then upload that.

Export the master you actually want seen

Finish out of your NLE or grading suite to HEVC or ProRes at the bitrate the work deserves. Do not upload camera RAW expecting it to play, here or anywhere. RAW is a storage and archive question, not a streaming one.

Check the runtime against 50 GB

Use the table above. If your 8K piece is short, you have room to spare. If it is long and at a high frame rate, split it or step down the delivery resolution deliberately rather than by accident.

Upload, and let it work through interruptions

The uploader sends the file in 10 MB parts, retries a failed part up to 60 times before giving up, and adapts how many parts run in parallel to the line it finds. Moving around the app does not interrupt it. Reloading the page does: the browser has discarded the bytes, so you re-drop the same file and it resumes from the last finished part.

Tell the viewer what they need

8K plays when the viewer's hardware decodes it. Say so in the email. If you are not sure about their machine, send a 4K version alongside and let them pick; nothing stops you hosting both.

One clarification we will not fudge, because it is the question we get most. There is no codec gate in our code. No allowlist decides which formats are allowed to stream and which are download-only. What plays is decided by the viewer’s browser decoder, full stop. So the claim we make is narrow and exact: the file is stored and served untouched, and the browser plays what it can decode. For codecs browsers decode, H.264, HEVC and AV1 among them, that means playback at your file’s own bitrate. For anything else, the file is still hosted and still downloadable by the people you allow.

A note on 10-bit 4:2:2 at 8K

Our side is safe by construction: we never re-encode, so a 10-bit 4:2:2 master is stored and served exactly as you made it. The browser side is not documented. No vendor publishes whether a video element decodes 10-bit 4:2:2 HEVC, in either direction, and the one primary specification available covers 4:2:0 only. We will not tell you it plays and we will not tell you it fails. Test with your own reviewers on their own machines, which is the only answer that means anything.

What it costs to keep 8K online

Priced by storage,
not by the view.

8K files are large, so the meter matters. Storage is the only thing measured here: the pricing page and the terms both state that views, uploads and viewers are unlimited on every plan, free included, and that there are no bandwidth caps. That is the opposite arrangement from a self-serve Vimeo account, where bandwidth is capped at 2 TB a month and playback counts against it.

For an 8K workflow the arithmetic is simple. Starter is free with 5 GB of hot storage and one film at a time, which is enough to test the pipeline with a short piece. Lite is $9 a month or $90 a year for 100 GB. Pro is $25 or $250 for 500 GB. Max is $75 or $750 for 1.5 TB hot plus 1 TB cold. Vault is $250 or $2,500 for 2 TB hot plus 2 TB cold. Beyond a plan, extra storage is $40 per TB of hot storage a month and $20 per TB of cold. Because nothing is metered on the way out, a heavily reviewed 8K cut costs the same as one nobody opens.

Questions

Frequently asked

Where can I host 8K video online without it being compressed again?

On a host that does not transcode. uncompressed.io streams the exact bytes you upload: there is no encode step, no adaptive ladder and no rendition list, so nothing sits between your 8K master and the viewer. The limits that remain are honest ones: 50 GB per file, and the viewer's own hardware has to decode the codec you uploaded. On Vimeo and YouTube the upload is re-encoded by design, and neither publishes a delivered bitrate above 4K.

Does Vimeo actually stream 8K?

Only under conditions Vimeo spells out. Its help centre says videos beyond 4K are delivered in HEVC, and that it will only generate a 5K to 8K transcode if the creator uploaded an HDR video greater than 5K resolution. An 8K SDR upload therefore does not get an 8K transcode. Vimeo's own pricing page markets the platform as streaming up to 4K Ultra HD, and Vimeo publishes no bitrate figure above 4K.

Where can I host 8K video at full bitrate?

Full bitrate means the host serves your file at the rate you encoded it, which requires that it does not re-encode. Vimeo publishes a maximum-bitrate ladder that tops out at 22 Mbps for 4K H.264 and 16 Mbps for 4K HEVC, and its own wording is that those numbers are a maximum, so a file can land lower. YouTube publishes no delivery bitrate at all. Serving the stored file untouched is the only arrangement where the phrase full bitrate means anything checkable.

How long can an 8K file be if the ceiling is 50 GB?

It depends entirely on the data rate you finished at. Using the two platforms' own published 8K upload recommendations as realistic rates, 50 GB holds roughly 2 hours 13 minutes at 50 Mbps, about 41 minutes at 160 Mbps, and about 22 minutes at 300 Mbps. For a spot, a title sequence, a music video or a review cut, the ceiling is not the binding constraint. For an 8K feature at a high frame rate in HDR, it is.

Can I upload camera RAW at 8K, like R3D or BRAW?

No, not as something that streams. Camera RAW is never streamed here, by us or by anyone: it is not a delivery format and no browser decodes it. The honest 8K workflow is to finish to HEVC or ProRes and upload that. The macOS app will hold RAW files as opaque blobs for storage and download, but they do not play in a browser and we will not imply otherwise.

Will my client be able to watch the 8K file?

Only if their machine can decode it. That caveat is real and we put it first, because 8K playback is a hardware question, not a hosting question. Vimeo's own above-4K article excludes iOS and Android entirely, including its own mobile app and mobile browsers, and lists Safari 11 and up and Edge 15 and up with supported hardware, macOS 10.13 and Windows 10. If your reviewers are on phones, an 8K master is the wrong file to send them.

What happens on a slow connection if there is no lower rendition?

It buffers. That is the trade and it is worth stating plainly: with no ladder there is nothing to fall back to, so a thin connection waits instead of quietly switching to a softer version of your image. Platforms that switch renditions never buffer and never show your grade either. Pick the behaviour that matches the job.

Host the 8K master, not a version of it

No transcode, no ladder, no resolution ceiling below your file. Up to 50 GB per file, and no metered bandwidth on any plan.