Free tool

Video bitrate calculator.
Bitrate in, file size out.

Pick a format or type a bitrate, set a duration, and see the file size, the hours you get per terabyte, and how long the upload takes. The camera presets are the manufacturers' own published data rates, not round numbers.

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Updated September 2026

File size

33.15 GB

5 min 0 sec at 884 Mbps

Per minute
6.63 GB
Per hour
397.80 GB
Hours per TB
2.5
Upload time
1 h 28 min

Sizes use decimal units, the way storage is sold: 1 GB is 1,000 MB. Camera presets convert the vendor’s MB/s figure at 8 bits per byte. Real files vary: variable-bitrate codecs move around their target, and audio adds roughly 1 to 10 Mbps on top.

The arithmetic

One formula,
and three places it surprises people.

Bitrate times seconds divided by eight. Everything else on this page is that formula with real numbers attached.

The reason a calculator is useful at all is that professional data rates are far larger than most people carry in their heads. A minute of ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 30p is about 6.6 GB. A minute of Blackmagic RAW off a full 12K sensor at 5:1 is about 35 GB. Those are not edge cases, they are ordinary working files, and they are why a delivery workflow built around email attachments or a 2 GB transfer cap falls apart on contact.

Three things move a real file away from the estimate. First, variable bitrate: most codecs target a rate rather than hold it, so complex frames cost more. Second, audio, which adds roughly 1 to 10 Mbps depending on format and channel count. Third, units: a gigabyte of storage is 1,000 MB, but your operating system may report the same file in binary gibibytes, about 7 percent smaller-looking.

6.6 GB

One minute

ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 30p, from Apple's published target rate

35 GB

One minute

Blackmagic RAW 12K at 5:1, from Blackmagic's own rate table

0.3 GB

One minute

A 4K H.264 upload at YouTube's recommended 40 Mbps

Reference table

What a minute costs,
format by format.

Every figure below comes from the manufacturer’s own documentation, listed in the sources at the foot of this page.

Data rate
Per minute
Hours per TB
Blackmagic RAW12K, 24 fps, 5:1
4,624 Mbps
34.7 GB
0.5
REDCODE8K VV, 24p, HQ
3,568 Mbps
26.8 GB
0.6
Nikon N-RAW8.3K, 24p, High
2,310 Mbps
17.3 GB
1.0
ProRes 422 HQ8K, 60p
7,542 Mbps
56.6 GB
0.3
ProRes 422 HQUHD, 60p
1,768 Mbps
13.3 GB
1.3
ProRes 422 HQUHD, 30p
884 Mbps
6.6 GB
2.5
ProRes 422UHD, 30p
589 Mbps
4.4 GB
3.8
ProRes 422 ProxyUHD, 30p
182 Mbps
1.4 GB
12.2
4K masterhigh-bitrate HEVC
100 Mbps
0.75 GB
22.2
YouTube upload4K, 30 fps, recommended
40 Mbps
0.30 GB
55.6

Data rates read from Apple, Blackmagic, RED and Nikon documentation, September 2026. Per-minute and hours-per-TB are computed from those rates in decimal units.

The part calculators leave out

Your master is one number.
What your client sees is another.

A calculator tells you what your file weighs. It cannot tell you what survives delivery, and that gap is where most of the disappointment lives. Upload a 100 Mbps 4K master to a mainstream platform and the viewer does not receive 100 Mbps. Vimeo’s own help centre documents a 22 Mbps ceiling for 4K H.264 playback, and YouTube delivers 4K in the same neighbourhood. The file you calculated is the input to somebody else’s encoder.

That is the whole reason this site exists. If a host streams the bytes you uploaded, the number in this calculator is also the number your client watches, and the only meter that matters is storage. If it re-encodes, the size you just computed describes a file nobody outside your edit suite will ever see. The mechanics of that trade are in what video compression actually does, and the hosting side is in video hosting without compression.

A practical use for this tool

Before you quote a job, run your acquisition format through it at the shoot length you expect. That number is your card budget, your backup drive budget, and your hosting budget in one figure. Filmmakers routinely discover the shoot needs three times the storage they planned, and it is cheaper to learn that now than on set.

Questions

Frequently asked

How do you calculate video file size from bitrate?

Multiply the bitrate in megabits per second by the length in seconds, then divide by 8 to get megabytes. A 100 Mbps master running 5 minutes is 100 x 300 / 8, which is 3,750 MB, or about 3.75 GB. Audio rides on top, usually 1 to 10 Mbps depending on the format and channel count.

Why is my real file bigger or smaller than the calculator says?

Most professional codecs are variable bitrate, so they spend more bits on complex frames and fewer on simple ones. Apple documents ProRes as targeting a data rate with a per-frame ceiling roughly 10 percent above target, so a grain-heavy shot lands above the estimate and a locked-off shot of a white wall lands below it.

Is a gigabyte 1,000 or 1,024 megabytes here?

1,000. Storage and bandwidth are sold in decimal units, so decimal is what matches your plan size and your invoice. Your operating system may report the same file in binary units, which is why a 3.75 GB file can display as 3.49 GiB.

What bitrate should I export at for delivery?

For web delivery, YouTube publishes 35 to 45 Mbps for 4K at 30 fps and 8 Mbps for 1080p as recommended upload rates. Those are recommendations for a platform that will re-encode you anyway. If your host streams the file untouched, the ceiling is your own judgement rather than a platform limit.

How much camera footage fits on a terabyte?

Set your format above and read the hours-per-TB figure. As a reference point, ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 30p runs about 884 Mbps, which is roughly 2.5 hours per terabyte, while Blackmagic RAW from a full 12K sensor at 5:1 runs 578 MB per second, which is closer to 24 minutes per terabyte.

Host your work at full bitrate

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Sources

  1. 1.Apple ProRes White Paper (target data rates by flavour, UHD, 4K DCI and 8K)
  2. 2.Apple Support: ProRes data rates (1080p 29.97 target rates)
  3. 3.Blackmagic RAW (constant bitrate rates for the 12K sensor)
  4. 4.Blackmagic RAW, Pocket Cinema Camera (6K and 4K DCI rates)
  5. 5.RED V-RAPTOR 8K VV Operation Guide, R3D Quality (8K and 6K REDCODE data rates)
  6. 6.RED KOMODO Operation Guide, R3D Quality (6K KOMODO data rates)
  7. 7.Nikon Z9 online manual, video recording (N-RAW average bit rates by frame size)
  8. 8.YouTube recommended upload encoding settings (recommended upload bitrates by resolution)
Video Bitrate Calculator: Bitrate to File Size