A 24/7 YouTube stream uses about 10.8 decimal GB per day for every 1 Mbps of sustained bitrate. At 10 Mbps, that is roughly 108 GB a day or 3.24 TB in a 30-day month. These are estimates of the broadcaster’s outgoing data, not the total data viewers use.
Bandwidth can mean data volume or connection speed
For a channel broadcasting continuously, outgoing data volume depends mainly on the stream’s bitrate and how long it runs. Connection speed is different: it is the upload capacity needed to send the stream reliably at that bitrate.
Viewers download the stream separately, at the playback quality delivered to their devices and for as long as they watch. YouTube transcodes incoming streams into multiple output formats, so audience downloads cannot be calculated from the broadcaster’s upload total alone. YouTube’s live encoder settings describe the incoming stream recommendations, while its streaming tips cover network capacity.
Estimate a 24/7 stream’s data use
For decimal gigabytes, use this estimate:
GB per day ≈ bitrate in Mbps × 10.8
It assumes a constant bitrate around the clock. The arithmetic is bitrate in bits per second multiplied by 86,400 seconds per day, divided by eight bits per byte and one billion bytes per decimal GB. For a month, multiply the daily estimate by the number of days; the table below uses 30 days.
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| YouTube H.264 live setting | Recommended bitrate | Approx. data per day | Approx. data per 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 720p30 | 8 Mbps | 86.4 GB | 2.59 TB |
| 720p60 | 8 Mbps | 86.4 GB | 2.59 TB |
| 1080p30 | 14 Mbps | 151.2 GB | 4.54 TB |
| 1080p60 | 17 Mbps | 183.6 GB | 5.51 TB |
| 4K/2160p30 | 42 Mbps | 453.6 GB | 13.61 TB |
| 4K/2160p60 | 50 Mbps | 540 GB | 16.2 TB |
The bitrate recommendations are YouTube’s H.264 settings, not measured usage totals. Its encoder table also lists AV1 and H.265/HEVC recommendations, which differ; use the column for your actual ingest codec and target bitrate. Resolution by itself does not determine data use. The estimates are theoretical and exclude protocol overhead, bitrate variation, outages and retransmissions. Router or ISP meters may also use binary GiB/TiB units or different counting conventions. Check YouTube’s current encoder table when choosing settings.
How much upload speed does it need?
Your available upload capacity must exceed the stream’s total bitrate. YouTube puts it this way: “The total bitrate that you’re streaming cannot exceed the amount of upload bandwidth available.” It recommends leaving about 20% headroom. Applying that guidance, a 10 Mbps stream target calls for approximately 12.5 Mbps of available upload capacity if 20% is reserved as headroom.
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- Test upload speed on the connection that will carry the stream.
- Allow for other people and devices using the same connection; a speed test’s headline result is not necessarily all available to the encoder.
- Monitor stream health while live. For computer-based streaming, YouTube recommends Ethernet; a cable can help reliability but does not reduce data use at a fixed bitrate. YouTube streaming tips
A broad mobile-streaming rule of thumb
YouTube’s mobile live-stream filming guidance says a stream uses about 10 MB per minute as a rule of thumb. Extrapolated unchanged, that is about 14.4 GB per 24 hours. It is a broad estimate, not a substitute for calculating from the actual encoder bitrate.
What to check before leaving a stream on
- Calculate the data allowance: multiply the target bitrate by 10.8 for GB per day, then multiply by the number of days in the period you want to estimate.
- Check the ISP plan: compare the estimate with its monthly data allowance, if it has one. A sustained 24/7 upload can add up to several decimal terabytes a month even at common HD settings.
- Check upload capacity separately: the data allowance concerns total volume; upload speed and headroom determine whether the live encoder can send reliably.
- Use the actual codec and bitrate: YouTube’s recommendations vary by codec, resolution and frame rate. A lower chosen bitrate reduces data volume, but resolution alone is not a reliable proxy.
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