A 24/7 YouTube stream sends about 10.8 decimal GB per day for each 1 Mbps of sustained encoder bitrate. Multiply the bitrate by 10.8 for an approximate daily figure; at 10 Mbps, that is about 108 GB per day.
That estimate is the broadcaster’s outgoing data volume, not a bill or a total for every person watching. It assumes an unchanged bitrate around the clock and leaves out protocol overhead, bitrate variation, outages and retransmissions. Viewers download their own YouTube playback streams separately.
What bandwidth means when you stream all day
People use “bandwidth” to mean two different things: the speed of a connection and the amount of data transferred over time. For planning a 24/7 channel, it helps to keep those separate. Upload speed is a rate, usually expressed in Mbps; data volume accumulates over hours and days, and is usually shown in GB or TB.
Your encoder sends a stream to YouTube at a target bitrate. If that target were held constant, a higher bitrate would send more data each second, and leaving the stream on longer would send more data overall. The daily estimate in this article concerns that outgoing feed from the broadcaster, not the audience’s combined viewing.
The actual setting depends on more than resolution. Codec and frame rate matter, and the chosen bitrate is the input for the calculation. YouTube’s live encoder recommendations give different bitrate recommendations for different formats and settings. Treat them as configuration guidance, not as measured data totals for your channel.
For example, a creator considering 1080p should not assume every 1080p stream uses the same amount of data. The H.264 recommendations in YouTube’s table include 14 Mbps for 1080p30 and 17 Mbps for 1080p60. Use the recommendation that matches the actual codec and frame rate you plan to send, then calculate from the intended bitrate. If you are choosing OBS settings, the 24/7 YouTube bitrate guide can help you think through the setting itself; this page focuses on what that setting implies for data volume.
A stream that is merely scheduled to run continuously may not send data during every minute of the day if it is stopped, disconnected or offline. Conversely, reconnects and retransmissions can add traffic that a simple calculation does not capture. The formula is useful for budgeting and comparing settings, but it is not a promise about what your ISP meter will show.
Estimate GB per day from Mbps
The conversion is straightforward once you fix the assumptions. One Mbps is one million bits per second. There are 86,400 seconds in a day, and eight bits make a byte. Using decimal GB, or one billion bytes per GB, gives this formula:
GB/day ≈ bitrate in Mbps × 1,000,000 × 86,400 ÷ 8 ÷ 1,000,000,000
The constants simplify to 10.8, so in ordinary planning terms:
GB/day ≈ bitrate in Mbps × 10.8
This is an arithmetic estimate, not a YouTube-published daily usage figure. It assumes a continuous, constant bitrate. Decimal GB is used because the calculation divides bytes by one billion. Some computer or internet-provider displays use binary GiB or other rounding conventions, so a displayed amount may not line up exactly with this decimal estimate.
Here are several examples based on the H.264 settings listed in YouTube’s live encoder recommendations. The monthly column uses a 30-day period and decimal TB, where 1 TB is 1,000 GB.
| Example H.264 setting | Recommended bitrate | Approx. GB/day | Approx. decimal TB per 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 720p30 | 8 Mbps | 86.4 GB | 2.59 TB |
| 720p60 | 8 Mbps | 86.4 GB | 2.59 TB |
| 1080p30 | 14 Mbps | 151.2 GB | 4.54 TB |
| 1080p60 | 17 Mbps | 183.6 GB | 5.51 TB |
| 2160p30 | 42 Mbps | 453.6 GB | 13.61 TB |
| 2160p60 | 50 Mbps | 540 GB | 16.2 TB |
These are calculated estimates from the listed bitrate settings. They do not mean YouTube says a 1080p30 channel consumes exactly 151.2 GB each day. If the channel uses AV1 or H.265/HEVC, refer to the appropriate codec column in YouTube’s current table rather than assuming the H.264 figures apply.
Resolution alone is not enough to estimate volume. Two channels at the same resolution can send different bitrates, and frame rate or codec can change the applicable recommendation. A useful comparison is therefore the setting you intend to use, its bitrate, and the resulting data estimate—not a label such as “1080p” on its own.
A worked example at 10 Mbps
Suppose a channel sends a sustained 10 Mbps stream all day. Multiply 10 by 10.8, giving an estimated 108 GB over 24 hours. That is the outgoing data represented by the encoder bitrate before allowing for network overhead or any variation from the assumed constant rate.
The same result can be checked from the units. Ten megabits per second multiplied by the seconds in a day is 864,000 megabits. Divide by eight to get 108,000 megabytes, then by 1,000 to express that as 108 decimal GB. This is not a measured router reading; it is the consequence of the stated bitrate and unit conventions.
If you are choosing a 10 Mbps setting, do not infer that 10 Mbps is automatically right for every video. The right encoder setting depends on the resolution, frame rate, codec and content, as well as the upload connection. Still images and gentle ambience may look acceptable at a different setting from detailed or fast-moving footage. The calculation only answers the data-volume question once you have chosen a bitrate.
For upload capacity, YouTube says the total bitrate sent must fit within available upload bandwidth and recommends leaving headroom. Its streaming tips explain the network considerations. As a simple illustration of reserving 20% of capacity as headroom, a 10 Mbps stream target would call for roughly 12.5 Mbps of available upload capacity. That is not a guarantee: other devices may use the connection, and a speed test is only a snapshot of conditions.
A 10 Mbps stream therefore presents two separate planning questions. One is whether the connection can sustain the upload with room for other traffic; the other is whether the data allowance can accommodate roughly 108 GB each day before real-world differences. If you run an Indian broadband connection with a cap or a shared connection, check both the plan conditions and actual upload stability. A guide to OBS settings for rain streams on Indian broadband is relevant when the connection and encoder choices need to be considered together.
Estimate monthly and yearly volume
To extend the daily figure, multiply it by the number of days in the period you care about. For a 30-day month at 10 Mbps, 108 GB per day times 30 gives 3,240 GB, or 3.24 decimal TB. For a 365-day year, the same daily estimate gives 39,420 GB, or 39.42 decimal TB.
A year is not twelve identical 30-day billing periods, so use the day count that matches your purpose. For an ISP bill, use the provider’s billing cycle. For a rough annual comparison, 365 days is the stated assumption. If a stream is off for part of the period, scale the estimate to the hours actually spent sending the feed, while remembering that a restart or reconnect may add some traffic.
Here is the same calculation for several settings from the table above. Each monthly estimate assumes 30 days of continuous transmission; each yearly estimate assumes 365 days. The totals are rounded for readability.
| Sustained bitrate | Approx. GB/day | Approx. decimal TB per 30 days | Approx. decimal TB per 365 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Mbps | 86.4 GB | 2.59 TB | 31.54 TB |
| 10 Mbps | 108 GB | 3.24 TB | 39.42 TB |
| 14 Mbps | 151.2 GB | 4.54 TB | 55.19 TB |
| 17 Mbps | 183.6 GB | 5.51 TB | 67.01 TB |
The table does not account for an ISP’s own billing definitions, whether it rounds usage, or what it counts as data. It is an estimate of payload implied by the encoder bitrate using decimal units. Compare it with the provider’s current plan terms and meter, rather than treating the arithmetic as an exact bill.
A separate YouTube mobile-streaming help page gives a broad rule of thumb of about 10 MB per minute. If extrapolated unchanged, that is about 14.4 GB over a day, but it is not a replacement for calculating from a known encoder bitrate. Different stream settings and workflows lead to different data rates. Use the mobile live-stream guidance as the broad context it is, and use the bitrate formula when you know the value being sent.
Allow for overhead, variation and interruptions
A real network transfer is not always identical to the encoder’s target bitrate. The formula treats the bitrate as constant for every second. In practice, protocol overhead means more data travels than the encoded media alone, and the actual rate can vary with encoder behaviour or settings. A connection may also drop and reconnect, with retransmissions adding traffic. An outage may reduce the time actually streamed, but it does not turn the simplified estimate into an exact measurement of usage.
For that reason, use the result as a planning baseline. If your allowance is close to the estimate, do not assume that matching the arithmetic exactly will be enough. Look at the ISP meter over a representative period, check how it labels units, and leave room for ordinary differences. No generic percentage adjustment can accurately predict every network, encoder and provider meter.
Bitrate changes also matter linearly. If you change from 10 Mbps to 14 Mbps and keep the stream running for the same number of hours, the bitrate-based estimate rises in the same proportion: calculate 14 × 10.8 for daily volume rather than continuing to use the 10 Mbps example. If a variable-bitrate encoder averages below its target at quiet moments, its observed transfer may differ from the constant-target calculation; if it goes above the assumed rate, it may be higher.
The goal is not to make every estimate pessimistic, but to distinguish what is known from what is not. A configured bitrate and operating schedule give you a repeatable baseline. Router counters or an ISP usage meter can tell you what that connection actually recorded over a period. Differences are a reason to check the assumptions, units, shared devices and measurement window, not evidence that the formula is a published YouTube figure.
If your channel is prerecorded and the task of keeping a local computer running is part of the problem, that is a separate operating concern from bandwidth. StreamNeo removes the need to keep your own computer on for the broadcast, but you still need to choose and budget for the stream bitrate, and it does not change the audience’s separate download use.
Broadcaster upload and viewer downloads are different
The broadcaster’s calculation covers the feed sent from the encoder to YouTube. Each viewer then receives a stream from YouTube, with playback quality selected or adapted for their device and connection. A person watching at a lower quality or for a shorter time does not make your outgoing encoder bitrate lower; it changes that viewer’s own download consumption.
YouTube says it transcodes the incoming live stream into multiple output formats. As a result, you cannot estimate total audience downloads by multiplying the broadcaster’s upload by the number of viewers. To do that properly you would need information about how many people watch, for how long, and which delivered qualities they receive. The broadcaster’s source bitrate alone does not provide those values.
This distinction matters when someone asks whether a channel will “use” a certain amount of bandwidth. If you mean the creator’s internet plan, estimate the upload stream’s data volume and check the plan’s upload capacity and data conditions. If you mean a viewer’s mobile plan, their playback quality and watch time are the relevant factors. If you mean YouTube’s total delivery to an audience, the simple encoder formula is not sufficient.
The outgoing feed also affects the broadcaster’s connection while it is live, even if the stream source is a prerecorded loop. YouTube recommends a wired Ethernet connection for computer-based streaming as part of its network guidance. A cable can help avoid some wireless interruptions, but at a fixed bitrate it does not reduce the amount of encoded data sent. For a creator comparing a continuous loop workflow with a local setup, the budget guide to a 24/7 Tamil devotional stream can help frame the broader operating choices without changing the underlying bitrate arithmetic.
Before committing, compare the operating options on the pricing page. When the file and channel are ready, start free — 24-hour trial, no card.
FAQ
How much data does 1 Mbps use in a 24/7 stream?
At a constant 1 Mbps, the calculation gives about 10.8 decimal GB per day. This is derived from bitrate and time, not a usage figure published by YouTube, and it excludes overhead, variation, interruptions and retransmissions.
How much does a 10 Mbps stream use in a month?
At the same constant-rate assumption, 10 Mbps works out to about 108 GB per day or 3.24 decimal TB in a 30-day period. Your meter or bill can differ because of network overhead, actual bitrate, outages, retransmissions and provider units or rounding.
Does the broadcaster pay for viewers’ downloads?
The broadcaster’s upload and each viewer’s download are separate data transfers. YouTube transcodes the incoming stream into multiple output formats, so the source upload total cannot tell you how much all viewers collectively download.
Is upload speed the same as data usage?
No. Upload speed is a rate that determines whether the stream can be sent steadily; data usage is the volume transferred over time. YouTube advises that the total stream bitrate fit within available upload bandwidth, with headroom for a more reliable connection.