Video Bitrate Calculator

Work out video bitrate instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Video Bitrate Calculator

Video bitrate scales with pixels per second multiplied by a bits-per-pixel factor that captures codec efficiency. H.264 needs roughly 0.10 bits per pixel for good quality, HEVC about 0.055 and AV1 around 0.045, which is why the same 1080p30 content needs about 6 Mbps in H.264 but under 3 Mbps in AV1.

Formula

Bitrate estimate

pixels per second = width x height x fps; bitrate = pixels per second x bits per pixel

Worked example

With the default values below, Video Bitrate Calculator returns Estimated bitrate of 6.22. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Frame widthminimum 16 px: 1,920 px
Frame heightminimum 16 px: 1,080 px
Frame rateaccepts 1–240 fps: 30 fps
Codec efficiencyone of H.264 / AVC (0.10 bits per pixel), H.265 / HEVC (0.055), AV1 (0.045), VP9 (0.06): H.264 / AVC (0.10 bits per pixel)

Results

Estimated bitrate: 6.22 Mbps
Pixels per second: 62,208,000
Bits per pixel: 0.100
Storage per hour: 2.61 GiB

Step by step

1Values used
2Bitrate estimate
3Estimated bitrate= 6.22 Mbps
4Pixels per second= 62,208,000
5Bits per pixel= 0.100
6Storage per hour= 2,799,360,000

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 3 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do bits-per-pixel figures vary so much?

Content complexity dominates. Static talking-head video compresses far better than fast-moving sport or film grain, so these factors are mid-range averages.

Is AV1 always the best choice?

It gives the smallest files but encoding is far slower and hardware decode support is newer. For live streaming, H.264 or HEVC often remain the practical choice.