Video Recording Time & Storage Calculator
How many hours of video fit on a card or drive, and how much space footage needs.
1 TB marketed = 931 GiB as shown by Windows/macOS (~7% smaller number, same bytes).
Presets fill in a typical bitrate; pick Custom to use the table below.
Typical for this setting: 27 Mbps. Enter your camera's real bitrate for an exact answer.
About the Video Recording Time & Storage Calculator
How many hours of video can 1TB hold? It depends on the bitrate, not just the resolution. Pick a storage size, resolution, frame rate and codec (or a device preset such as an iPhone in 4K HEVC, a GoPro, a DJI drone, a dashcam or a security camera) and the calculator shows the recording time, plus how many GB each minute and hour uses. Switch modes to work out how much storage a given number of hours needs, or how many TB a multi-camera security system needs for 7 or 30 days of retention. Know your camera's exact bitrate? Type it in for a precise answer. It all runs in your browser.
How many hours of video can 1TB hold?
A 1 TB drive holds roughly 50 hours of 4K or 150 hours of 1080p video at typical H.264 bitrates, and about 65% more in H.265/HEVC. The table below uses this calculator's typical bitrates at 30 fps and 1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. Times are rounded down to the whole minute.
| Resolution (30 fps) | H.264 | H.265 / HEVC | ProRes 422 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 720p | 296 h 17 min (7.5 Mbps) | 493 h 49 min (4.5 Mbps) | 33 h 58 min (65.4 Mbps) |
| 1080p | 148 h 8 min (15 Mbps) | 246 h 54 min (9 Mbps) | 15 h 6 min (147.1 Mbps) |
| 1440p | 88 h 53 min (25 Mbps) | 148 h 8 min (15 Mbps) | 8 h 29 min (261.6 Mbps) |
| 4K | 49 h 22 min (45 Mbps) | 82 h 18 min (27 Mbps) | 3 h 46 min (588.6 Mbps) |
| 5.3K/5.4K | 27 h 46 min (80 Mbps) | 46 h 17 min (48 Mbps) | 1 h 58 min (1,126.3 Mbps) |
| 8K | 18 h 31 min (120 Mbps) | 30 h 51 min (72 Mbps) | 56 min (2,354.4 Mbps) |
At 60 fps, expect roughly two thirds of these times for H.264 and HEVC, and half for ProRes. Treat them as a ceiling: file systems, phone operating systems and recorders reserve some space, so plan on 5 to 10% less.
Minutes of 4K video per card size
This table answers the common phone and camera question of how many minutes of 4K fit on a 128 GB or 256 GB card. It uses the same bitrate table, with GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes.
| Card / drive | 4K30 H.265 (27 Mbps) | 4K30 H.264 (45 Mbps) | 4K60 H.265 (40.5 Mbps) | 4K30 ProRes 422 HQ (880.9 Mbps) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 64 GB | 316 min | 189 min | 210 min | 9 min |
| 128 GB | 632 min | 379 min | 421 min | 19 min |
| 256 GB | 1,264 min | 758 min | 842 min | 38 min |
| 512 GB | 2,528 min | 1,517 min | 1,685 min | 77 min |
| 1 TB | 4,938 min | 2,962 min | 3,292 min | 151 min |
ProRes is the outlier. It is an intra-frame editing codec, so a 256 GB phone that holds about 21 hours of HEVC 4K holds well under an hour of ProRes 4K.
Why the answers vary so much: bitrate
Resolution does not decide file size on its own. Bitrate does: how many megabits the camera writes each second. The math is simple:
- Bytes = bitrate (bits per second) × seconds ÷ 8
- GB per minute = Mbps × 60 ÷ 8 ÷ 1,000
- Recording time = storage in bytes ÷ (Mbps × 1,000,000 ÷ 8)
Two 4K cameras can differ by 4× or more. A phone in HEVC may write about 23 Mbps, a drone 100 to 150 Mbps, and a cinema camera in ProRes 600 Mbps or more. The main things that move bitrate:
- Codec. H.265/HEVC needs about 40% fewer bits than H.264 for similar quality. ProRes trades size for easy editing.
- Frame rate. 60 fps needs more data than 30 fps, but not double, because modern codecs store changes between frames.
- Camera settings. High-bitrate modes, 10-bit colour and HDR all raise the number.
- Scene content. Variable-bitrate cameras use more data for busy, fast-moving shots than for static ones.
Worked example: 4K30 H.265 at 50 Mbps on 1 TB
Say your mirrorless or action camera records 4K 30 fps H.265 at 50 Mbps (type 50 into the bitrate override):
- Bytes per second: 50,000,000 ÷ 8 = 6,250,000 bytes (6.25 MB)
- Per minute: 6.25 MB × 60 = 375 MB, which is 0.375 GB
- Per hour: 375 MB × 60 = 22.5 GB
- On 1 TB: 1,000 GB ÷ 22.5 GB per hour = 44.4 hours, or 44 h 26 min
Windows would show that drive as 931 GB, but the bytes are the same, so the answer does not change.
Security camera storage table
For NVRs and DVRs, multiply cameras × bitrate × recording hours × days. The table assumes 24/7 continuous recording with H.265, which is how most modern IP cameras record.
| Setup (24/7 recording) | 7 days | 30 days |
|---|---|---|
| 1 × 1080p H.265 (3 Mbps) | 0.23 TB | 0.97 TB |
| 4 × 1080p H.265 (3 Mbps) | 0.91 TB | 3.89 TB |
| 8 × 1080p H.265 (3 Mbps) | 1.81 TB | 7.78 TB |
| 1 × 4K H.265 (8 Mbps) | 0.6 TB | 2.59 TB |
| 4 × 4K H.265 (8 Mbps) | 2.42 TB | 10.37 TB |
| 8 × 4K H.265 (8 Mbps) | 4.84 TB | 20.74 TB |
So one 1080p camera fills 1 TB in about 31 days, and one 4K camera in about 12. Switching to H.264 roughly doubles these figures, and motion-only recording can cut them sharply.
Notes on sources and accuracy
All bitrates here are approximate typical values, not guarantees. Use the override with your own camera's bitrate whenever you can.
- iPhone presets use the per-minute sizes Apple lists in the iPhone Camera settings: about 170 MB per minute for 4K 30 fps HEVC (≈22.7 Mbps) and about 400 MB per minute for 4K 60 fps (≈53.3 Mbps). ProRes 4K 30 fps uses Apple's figure of about 6 GB per minute (≈800 Mbps).
- ProRes 422 and 422 HQ scale Apple's published 1080p 29.97 fps target rates (147 and 220 Mbps) by pixel count and frame rate.
- H.264 base rates at 30 fps are 7.5, 15, 25, 45, 80 and 120 Mbps for 720p through 8K. We multiply by 0.85 for 24 fps, 1.5 for 60 fps and 2.5 for 120 fps, and use 60% of the H.264 figure for H.265.
- GoPro, DJI, dashcam and security camera presets (120, 100, 12 and 3 Mbps) are conservative round numbers based on common maximum or default settings. Many models record less.
How to use the Video Recording Time & Storage Calculator
- 01Choose a mode: Recording time (how long a card or drive lasts), Storage needed (space for a number of hours) or Security camera.
- 02Enter the storage size or tap a preset from 32 GB to 8 TB. Storage is counted in decimal GB (1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes), the way cards and drives are sold.
- 03Pick a device preset, or set resolution, frame rate and codec to use the typical bitrate table. Type your camera's real bitrate in Mbps to override it.
- 04Read the recording time, GB per minute and GB per hour. For security cameras, you also get the TB needed and how many days a drive keeps.
Frequently asked questions
How many hours of 4K video can 1TB hold?
About 49 hours of 4K 30 fps at a typical 45 Mbps (H.264), or about 82 hours in H.265/HEVC at 27 Mbps. An iPhone recording 4K 30 fps HEVC (about 170 MB per minute) fills 1 TB in roughly 98 hours. Cameras recording 100 Mbps or more fill it in about 22 hours or less.
How many hours of 1080p video can 1TB hold?
Around 148 hours of 1080p 30 fps at a typical 15 Mbps H.264 bitrate, or about 247 hours in H.265/HEVC at 9 Mbps. Lower-bitrate sources such as a security camera at 3 Mbps fit about 740 hours, which is around 30 days of 24/7 recording.
How many minutes of 4K video fit on 128GB and 256GB?
At a typical 4K 30 fps HEVC bitrate of 27 Mbps, 128 GB holds about 632 minutes (10.5 hours) and 256 GB about 1,264 minutes. For an iPhone at about 170 MB per minute, that is roughly 750 and 1,500 minutes. In ProRes 4K the same cards hold only about 21 and 42 minutes. Real free space is lower once the phone's system files are counted.
Why does my 1TB drive only show 931GB?
Drive makers count 1 TB as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. Windows (and older macOS) divides by 1,073,741,824 bytes per GB, so the same drive shows as about 931 GB. No space is missing, it is just a different unit (GiB). This calculator uses decimal GB to match the label on the box.
How much storage do I need for 4 security cameras for 30 days?
Four 1080p H.265 cameras at about 3 Mbps recording 24/7 need about 3.9 TB for 30 days, so a 4 TB drive holds almost exactly a month. Four 4K H.265 cameras at about 8 Mbps need about 10.4 TB. Motion-only recording can cut this by half or more.
How do I find my camera's actual bitrate?
Open a clip's properties (Windows: right-click, Properties, Details; macOS: Get Info or QuickTime's Movie Inspector) and read the total bitrate or data rate. You can also divide the file size by its length: MB per second × 8 = Mbps. Enter that number in the bitrate override for an exact result.