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Short answer: it depends mainly on the bitrate of your local recording and how long you keep it. At a constant bitrate, estimate decimal storage with GB ≈ bitrate in Mbps × hours × 0.45. Recording continuously, each 1 Mbps uses about 10.8 GB per day or 3.94 TB per 365-day year, before overhead and headroom.
Estimate storage from your recording bitrate
Use the bitrate of the file you are recording locally—not automatically the bitrate of a YouTube upload or stream. If your local recording uses the same encoded stream as your live output, the live bitrate is a useful estimate. Otherwise, use the local recording setting or measure a representative file.
The formula assumes a constant bitrate and decimal units (1 GB = 1 billion bytes; 1 TB = 1,000 GB):
Approximate GB = bitrate in Mbps × recording hours × 0.45
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For a continuous channel, multiply the bitrate by 10.8 for approximate GB per day, or by 3.94 for approximate TB across 365 days. These are arithmetic estimates, not measured file sizes. Leave extra capacity for filesystem and recording overhead, variable-size files, and any safety margin.
Example storage for common gaming stream settings
YouTube’s live encoder guidance recommends different H.264 bitrates by resolution and frame rate. Applying the formula to those live rates gives these approximate local archive sizes for continuous recording:
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| Live output | YouTube recommended H.264 live bitrate | Approximate storage per day | Approximate storage per 365-day year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1080p60 | 17 Mbps | 184 GB | 67 TB |
| 1440p60 | 34 Mbps | 367 GB | 134 TB |
| 2160p60 (4K60) | 50 Mbps | 540 GB | 197 TB |
These figures use YouTube’s H.264 live-ingest recommendations, not a guarantee that every local recording will have exactly that bitrate. YouTube lists different live rates for AV1 and H.265, so use the relevant codec row rather than applying the H.264 examples to another codec. Its separate SDR upload recommendations include 12 Mbps for 1080p high-frame-rate video and 24 Mbps for 1440p high-frame-rate video; those are upload encoding recommendations, not live-ingest rates.
Choose retention before buying storage
Capacity depends on both how much you record and how long you keep it. A month of continuous footage is roughly one-twelfth of the annual estimate; keeping two copies doubles the storage requirement. For a real drive or NAS decision, calculate the archive you want to retain, then compare usable capacity after any redundancy—not just the capacity printed on the box.
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- Decide whether you need local VODs and set a retention period.
- Calculate daily and annual volume using the local recording bitrate, then multiply by the number of simultaneous copies.
- Account for usable capacity, drive-failure recovery, expansion options, and whether storage must remain attached to the recording system.
- Keep headroom and validate the estimate by recording a representative gaming session with your intended settings and measuring its actual file size.
Variable-bitrate or quality-based recording can create files that differ from the constant-bitrate estimate, and gaming scenes may vary in complexity. A sample recording is the most useful check before committing to a capacity.
Why YouTube’s archive is not a complete 24/7 backup
YouTube says streams under 12 hours can be automatically archived, but a stream that exceeds 12 hours may not be captured at all. YouTube recommends recording a local archive as a backup. If preserving a complete 24/7 history matters, do not assume a single uninterrupted broadcast will reliably become a complete platform VOD; plan local capture or deliberate stream sessions.
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Source: YouTube Help: Archive live streams.
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If the goal is to keep uploaded gaming VODs playing as a YouTube live stream, StreamNeo can loop them from the cloud: upload your recording or build a playlist, add your YouTube stream key, and go live. Nothing has to stay on at home. It streams your uploads as made, up to 4K 60fps at one price per slot, and automatically recovers if YouTube drops the stream. The first day is free with no card. Monthly pricing is $9.99 per month. Storage in this service is not a substitute for a separately managed local VOD archive if you need to keep original recordings.
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