Video Bitrate Calculator
This video bitrate calculator turns video and audio bitrate and duration into a file size, for example 627 MB for 10 minutes at 8 Mbit/s video and 192 kbit/s audio. It also finds the bitrate for a target size and the duration a file can hold.
Example: What do you want to calculate: File size from bitrate and duration · Video bitrate 8 · Unit: Mbit/s · Hours 0 h · Minutes 10 min · Seconds 0 s · Audio bitrate 192 kbit/s · Container overhead 2 % → Result: File size: 626.69 MB (0.62669 GB). Source: Wikipedia – Bitrate. Updated: .
How it is calculated
The size of a video file follows from bitrate times duration: file = (video bitrate + audio bitrate) · seconds / 8. Dividing by 8 converts bits to bytes. The calculator shows the result in MB, GB, MiB and GiB and can add an allowance for container and metadata.
Three ways to calculate
In the first mode you set bitrate and duration: 10 minutes at 8 Mbit/s video and 192 kbit/s audio are 8,192 kbit/s · 600 s / 8 ≈ 614 MB, about 627 MB with 2 percent overhead. In the second mode you set the target size, say 700 MB for 90 minutes, and get the total bitrate; subtracting the audio bitrate leaves the video bitrate. In the third mode you ask how long a video of a given bitrate fits into 1 GB.
Units and pitfalls
Bitrates are given in kbit/s or Mbit/s, file sizes in bytes. One megabyte (MB) is 10⁶ bytes and one mebibyte (MiB) 2²⁰ bytes, which is why Windows and other systems can show the same file as smaller. The YouTube table lists reference values for SDR video at 24 to 30 frames per second; for 60 fps or HDR YouTube recommends higher values.
- With variable bitrate (VBR) the actual size scatters around the calculated value.
- Stereo AAC audio is usually between 128 and 256 kbit/s.
- For upload limits (for example 25 MB) aim slightly below the limit.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate the file size of a video?
Add video and audio bitrate, multiply by the duration in seconds and divide by 8. 8 Mbit/s of video over 10 minutes is about 600 MB, plus audio and container.
What bitrate do I need for 1 GB over two hours?
About 1.1 Mbit/s in total (1 GB · 8 / 7200 s). After a 128 kbit/s audio track roughly 1 Mbit/s remains for the picture.
Why does Windows show a different file size?
Because it often shows MiB (1,048,576 bytes) as “MB”, while manufacturers and this calculator use 1,000,000 bytes. The difference is about 5 percent.
Sources and legal basis
- Wikipedia – Bitrate
- YouTube-Hilfe – Empfohlene Upload-Codierungseinstellungen
- Wikipedia – Binärpräfix (MB and MiB)
As of: · Editorial policy
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