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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteA home PC’s electricity cost is straightforward to estimate from its measured power draw and your local electricity rate. An EC2 total is not one fixed monthly price: it depends on the AWS Region, instance, storage, operating system and the outbound data charge for the continuous stream. At the same bitrate and uptime, compare those inputs—not an unspecified EC2 instance with a guessed PC wattage.
What this comparison includes
This is a comparison of one encoder continuously sending one feed to YouTube for a 730-hour month. It excludes video production, home internet you already pay for, YouTube’s delivery to viewers, and hardware purchase unless you choose to add those costs. The EC2 side includes instance runtime and any applicable storage, public IPv4 and data-transfer charges.
That distinction matters: an EC2 encoder sending a feed to YouTube is not the same setup as AWS’s managed live-streaming architecture, which can use MediaLive, MediaPackage and CloudFront to encode, package and distribute content.
Estimate the home PC’s electricity cost
Use the PC’s average wall draw while streaming, not its advertised power-supply rating. A plug-in watt meter can measure the computer and any peripherals that must remain on. If the PC would be on anyway, count only the additional electricity attributable to streaming for an incremental-cost comparison.
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Formula: average draw in kW × 730 hours × local electricity price per kWh.
For a clearly labeled U.S. illustration, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a 2025 residential average of 17.30¢/kWh in its February 2026 preliminary Electric Power Monthly data. At that rate, a PC drawing 100 W continuously uses 0.1 kW × 730 = 73 kWh, or about $12.63 for the month. At the same rate, 50 W costs about $6.31 and 200 W about $25.26. These are arithmetic examples, not measurements of a particular gaming PC. Replace both the wattage and electricity rate with your measured and local values.
Electricity prices vary widely: the EIA’s February 2026 preliminary data put 2025 state residential rates between 8.20¢ and 35.72¢ per kWh, from North Dakota to Hawaii. A watt meter is more useful than assuming a typical PC draw; no particular meter model is required for the calculation.
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Estimate the EC2 stream’s data volume
The encoder’s bitrate determines how much data EC2 sends to YouTube. For a 30-day month, a useful decimal planning conversion is:
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Bitrate in Mbps × 0.45 ≈ GB per month.
This comes from bitrate × seconds ÷ 8. Actual usage can vary with protocol overhead and uptime.
| Feed bitrate | Approximate outbound volume per 30 days |
|---|---|
| 10 Mbps | 3,240 GB (about 3.24 TB) |
| 17 Mbps | 5,508 GB (about 5.51 TB) |
YouTube’s encoder guide recommends different bitrates by codec, resolution and frame rate. For H.264, its recommendations include 10 Mbps for 1080p30 and 17 Mbps for 1080p60. Use the bitrate you actually configure, rather than assuming every stream uses the same amount of data.
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AWS says customers receive 100 GB of internet data transfer out free each month, aggregated across AWS services and Regions, with exceptions for China and GovCloud. Check the current terms and calculator for your account and usage. A continuous multi-terabyte encoder feed can exceed that allowance substantially; the allowance does not make all of the feed automatically free.
Build a like-for-like monthly EC2 estimate
There is no defensible universal EC2 total without choosing the configuration and Region. Use the current AWS Pricing Calculator and enter the following for the encoder:
- Region and instance: choose the AWS Region and instance family and size that can run your encoder at the intended resolution and frame rate.
- Operating system and runtime: select the operating system and enter 730 hours if the instance will run continuously for the month.
- Storage and networking: include the EBS volume and a public IPv4 address if your setup uses one, along with any other services you select.
- Outbound traffic: estimate the feed volume from its bitrate, then apply the current data-transfer pricing and relevant free allowance.
- Discounts and eligibility: include only discounts or free-tier eligibility that actually apply to your account and configuration.
Add the calculator’s applicable costs to get the EC2 estimate. The instance’s hourly price alone is not the monthly total if storage, networking or egress also apply. No current all-in amount can be calculated for an unspecified instance and Region.
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Compare the costs without mixing architectures
| Cost or factor | Home PC | EC2 encoder sending to YouTube |
|---|---|---|
| Core monthly cost | Measured average wall draw × 730 hours × local price per kWh | Selected instance hourly price × 730, plus applicable storage and other selected services |
| Continuous feed | Uses the home connection; existing internet cost is excluded here | Creates outbound AWS traffic based on bitrate and runtime; check current transfer pricing |
| Equipment | Existing PC cost is excluded unless purchase or replacement is incremental | Instance is billed by usage; selected storage and other services may add charges |
| Viewer delivery | YouTube handles delivery after ingest | In the simple encoder-to-YouTube setup, EC2 sends the source feed; YouTube handles viewer delivery and transcoding |
| Quality and performance | Depends on the PC’s ability to encode the chosen stream reliably | Depends on the selected instance’s ability to encode the chosen stream reliably |
YouTube states that it automatically transcodes a live stream into multiple output formats so viewers on different devices and networks can watch. In a simple EC2-to-YouTube setup, do not count every viewer’s playback as EC2 egress: that would describe a different architecture with AWS distribution services.
Neither setup has a cost advantage that can be declared without the actual inputs. A home PC’s incremental electricity may be low if it is already on, while its full draw matters if streaming keeps it running solely for the channel. EC2 depends on the selected Region and instance as well as the feed’s bitrate and applicable egress rate. Hardware replacement, backups, maintenance and resilience can also affect a broader ownership comparison, but they are not included in the basic calculations above.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Configure the YouTube feed for the estimate you use
Use one consistent output configuration in both cost estimates; otherwise the comparison changes bitrate and quality as well as platform. YouTube recommends testing the upload bitrate and using RTMPS, CBR and a two-second keyframe interval; do not exceed four seconds. Its official guide recommends RTMPS as a secure extension to RTMP.
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- Bitrate: select it for the codec, resolution and frame rate. YouTube’s H.264 examples are 10 Mbps for 1080p30 and 17 Mbps for 1080p60.
- Protocol: use RTMPS where supported, as YouTube recommends.
- Rate control: use CBR for the recommended encoder setting.
- Keyframes: set a two-second interval and do not exceed four seconds.
These settings affect the feed volume and therefore the EC2 transfer estimate. They do not change the electricity formula; measure the PC at the actual workload you plan to run.
Common comparison mistakes
- Using the power supply’s wattage as the PC’s draw: measure wall consumption while the stream is running.
- Treating 100 GB of AWS transfer as enough for the month: calculate the feed volume from bitrate and runtime, then check current transfer terms and pricing.
- Adding viewer playback traffic to the EC2 encoder bill: in the direct EC2-to-YouTube setup, EC2 sends the ingest feed; YouTube transcodes and delivers it.
- Quoting an EC2 price without a Region or instance: the total is configuration-dependent. Specify the calculator inputs instead of presenting a universal monthly figure.
- Using AWS’s managed live-streaming estimate as an EC2 quote: AWS’s published example describes a different architecture and is not an EC2 instance price.
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