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Start from a delivery, event, mezzanine, or high-data-rate profile, then replace its assumptions.
Bitrate is normalized to bit/s before calculating bytes.
Compressed stereo often falls near 128–320 kbit/s; production multitrack audio can be higher.
kbit/s
For example, 1.5 means 1 hour 30 minutes.
h
Use 1 for a single camera or one finished encode.
streams
This multiplies the source package; it does not model parity or deduplication.
{{ headroom_pct }}%
Twenty percent is a practical starting point; use the exact field for values above 100%.
%
Use one card, shuttle drive, or archive drive capacity for whole-device counts.
The neutral default is 0%; use a measured allowance when available.
%
The neutral default is 0%; add only files that travel with the footage package.
%
The neutral default is 0%; 10–20% is a conservative operational reserve.
%
The neutral default is $0/TB and produces no budget charge.
$/TB
The neutral default is 0%; use measured peak-to-average behavior when known.
%
Storage plan
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Shoot checks
Review editable assumptions before allocating media.
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Codec what-if

Compare relative video-rate scenarios. These are not fixed codec specifications; measure the actual camera or encoder setting before buying media.

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Time-lapse Plan Calculator Calculate time-lapse frames, interval, clip length or shoot duration, with optional storage, battery, exposure and scheduling checks.
Timecode Duration Calculator Calculate frame-accurate timecode spans with drop-frame validation and endpoint rules, then add 24-hour wrap or pull handles when needed.
Audio File Size Calculator Estimate audio file and session storage from PCM settings or encoded bitrate with multitrack counts, media-fit checks and a planning buffer.
Camera Memory Card Capacity Calculator Plan camera memory cards for photos and video with mirrored-slot capacity plus checks for spare reserve, burst recovery and sustained write speed.

Recording time becomes storage through bitrate. A stream averaging 100 megabits per second writes about 45 decimal gigabytes per hour before audio, container overhead, proxies, backups, or spare capacity are added. Double the recording time or camera count and the footage volume doubles; keep extra copies and the archive requirement multiplies again.

Bitrate describes data per second, not image dimensions by itself. Two 4K cameras can produce very different file sizes because codec, frame rate, bit depth, chroma sampling, compression mode, scene complexity, and camera settings change the recorded rate. A measured or manufacturer-published bitrate is more useful than resolution alone.

StageAddsPlanning question
Encoded essenceVideo, audio, duration, and simultaneous streamsHow much recorded media is created?
Source packageContainer overhead, sidecars, and proxiesWhat travels with the footage?
Retained copiesOne to four complete copiesHow many independent sets must fit?
ReservationPlanning headroom and unavailable drive capacityHow much media should be purchased or reserved?

Units are a frequent source of eightfold errors. Mbit/s and Gbit/s are bit rates; MB/s and MiB/s are byte rates. Decimal GB and TB use powers of 1,000, while GiB and TiB use powers of 1,024. Storage copies are simple multiplication here, so parity, erasure coding, snapshots, and deduplication need separate modelling.

How to Use This Tool:

Begin with the rate actually recorded, then add operational allowances in the order they affect the footage.

  1. Choose a Recording preset as a starting point or select custom values. Confirm Video bitrate and its unit; do not read MB/s as Mbit/s.
  2. Enter total Audio bitrate, recording duration, and the number of simultaneous Cameras or streams. Use one stream for a single camera or one finished encode.
  3. Select the number of complete Storage copies and add planning headroom. Copies multiply the source package and do not represent RAID parity or deduplicated storage.
  4. Enter one card or drive capacity and any unusable-capacity reserve. Add measured container, sidecar, proxy, and variable-bitrate allowances only when they belong to the workflow.
  5. Review both capture-media and archive-drive counts. Round-device counts are intentionally whole numbers, so confirm that the final device also leaves enough operational space.

Interpreting Results:

Source footage includes the encoded streams plus declared container and sidecar allowances. Planned storage includes every retained copy and planning headroom. Capture-media count uses one source package with headroom; archive-drive count uses the complete retained-copy reservation.

The drive counts are capacity checks, not performance checks. A card or array can be large enough yet too slow for the combined write rate. Verify sustained write speed, camera media certification, filesystem limits, transfer time, power, and backup workflow separately.

Technical Details:

Every bitrate is normalized to bits per second. An explicit variable-bitrate buffer increases video rate before audio is added. The combined rate is multiplied by elapsed seconds and stream count, then divided by eight to convert bits to bytes.

Formula Core:

The storage path is staged so rate uncertainty, package overhead, retained copies, and headroom remain distinct.

R=Rv×(1+b)+Ra
E=R×h×36008×s
S=E×(1+o)×(1+x)
P=S×c×(1+g)
Dusable=D×(1−r) n=⌈required bytesDusable⌉
UnitFactorCanonical quantity
kbit/s1,000bit/s
Mbit/s1,000,000bit/s
Gbit/s1,000,000,000bit/s
MB/s8,000,000bit/s
MiB/s8,388,608bit/s
TB1,000,000,000,000bytes
TiB1,099,511,627,776bytes

b is the variable-bitrate buffer, o container overhead, x sidecar and proxy allowance, g planning headroom, and r unusable-capacity reserve; each is its entered percentage divided by 100. Estimated cost uses planned decimal terabytes multiplied by the entered price per TB. Device counts use the mathematical ceiling and therefore always reserve a whole device.

Accuracy Notes:

Storage estimates are proportional to the bitrate assumptions. Variable-rate codecs can move above or below a nominal rate, and sidecars, proxies, metadata, filesystem allocation, and application libraries may add data not represented by a zero allowance.

  • Use measured average and peak rates from representative footage when available.
  • Add a variable-bitrate buffer for scenes or modes likely to exceed the nominal average.
  • Do not treat copy count as a backup-safety rating; independence, verification, location, and recovery testing still matter.
  • Check write throughput as well as capacity for multicamera or high-data-rate capture.

Worked Examples:

Two-camera event recording

Two hours from two cameras at 100 Mbit/s video plus 320 kbit/s audio produces 180.576 GB of source footage. Keeping two copies with 20% headroom requires 433.3824 GB. A 1 TB drive with no capacity reserve fits the archive as one whole drive, though sustained write speed still needs a separate check.

Byte-rate unit check

One hour at 1 MB/s is 3.6 GB, because a byte contains eight bits. Entering the same numeric value as 1 Mbit/s would produce only 0.45 GB, an eightfold underestimate.

References: