To estimate Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) egress for a 24/7 YouTube stream, calculate how much data your encoder sends to YouTube’s live ingest using its actual bitrate and the time it runs. Then compare that amount, together with your tenancy’s other outbound traffic, with the allowance and pricing that apply to your account.
This is not an estimate of the data YouTube sends to viewers. OCI carries the stream from your cloud host to YouTube; YouTube then processes the live feed for playback. The distinction matters because your OCI ingest connection does not grow with your YouTube audience.
Define which traffic the estimate covers
For this calculation, count outbound data transferred from the OCI resource running your encoder to YouTube Live ingest. The useful starting point is the total bitrate actually transmitted by that encoder, not the resolution label by itself and not the speed of your internet connection in general.
If video is set to 17 Mbps and stereo audio is encoded separately at 128 kbps, the combined stream rate is 17.128 Mbps. If the encoder’s displayed total already includes audio, do not add the audio a second time. Check the settings and, where available, the encoder’s measured output rather than assuming that a preset name tells you the complete rate.
The calculation estimates data volume, not a guaranteed invoice. It assumes a continuous stream at a chosen rate. Actual traffic can differ because a variable bitrate encoder may transmit at different rates, and a real account can have other workloads that also send data out. Retransmissions and protocol overhead can add traffic; backups, uploads, updates and other services may also use the tenancy’s outbound transfer.
A separate reliability setting should not be confused with the volume calculation. YouTube recommends bandwidth headroom for a stable upload, but spare capacity in an uplink is not data sent by itself. Estimate egress from the stream that is transmitted, including any backup feed if that feed is also running, rather than multiplying by unused bandwidth headroom.
Convert bitrate and duration into data volume
A bitrate is measured in bits per second. To estimate bytes transferred, multiply the bitrate by the number of seconds streamed, then divide by eight because one byte contains eight bits:
Data in bytes = total bitrate in bits per second × streaming seconds ÷ 8
For an easy monthly comparison, use a 30-day month as a transparent working convention. That is 30 × 24 × 60 × 60, or 2,592,000 seconds. For decimal terabytes, divide the resulting bytes by 1,000,000,000,000. If you want a closer estimate for a specific bill period, substitute the number of seconds in that calendar month and use the billing unit shown in Oracle’s calculator or bill.
Keep units consistent throughout. Mbps means megabits per second, while MB/s means megabytes per second; they are not interchangeable. Decimal TB and binary TiB are also different. A rough estimate can be useful without resolving that distinction, but do not present a precise charge until the unit basis matches Oracle’s billing presentation.
YouTube’s live encoder settings guide provides recommended bitrates for common formats. Treat a recommendation as an example input, not a promise that every encoder will measure exactly that rate. The stream’s chosen settings and actual operation determine the estimate.
For example, if your video setting is expressed separately from audio, add the encoded audio rate before applying the formula. Convert 128 kbps to 0.128 Mbps, then add it to a video rate of 17 Mbps. If you use a different frame rate, codec, audio arrangement or quality setting, replace those inputs rather than carrying the example forward unchanged.
Estimate a 24/7 stream’s outbound traffic
The following examples use YouTube’s published H.264 recommendations and stereo audio at 128 kbps. They assume constant bitrate (CBR), continuous operation for 30 days, and that audio is additional to the listed video bitrate. These are calculated volumes, not measured traffic or a forecast of a particular tenancy’s invoice.
| Example input | Total stream bitrate | Approximate data over 30 days |
|---|---|---|
| 720p60 H.264 video plus stereo audio | 8.128 Mbps | 2.63 decimal TB |
| 1080p60 H.264 video plus stereo audio | 17.128 Mbps | 5.55 decimal TB |
| 2160p60 H.264 video plus stereo audio | 50.128 Mbps | 16.24 decimal TB |
The 1080p60 example is calculated as 17.128 million bits per second × 2,592,000 seconds ÷ 8. Dividing the resulting bytes by one trillion gives approximately 5.55 decimal TB. For a different uptime, scale the duration: a channel that runs only part of the month sends less than the same stream running continuously, assuming the same rate.
These comparisons show why resolution alone is not enough to judge a monthly total. Frame rate and codec can change the recommended input bitrate, and audio can be included or omitted in the encoder’s displayed figure. If your video is 1080p30 rather than 1080p60, use the bitrate for the format you have actually chosen. If your content is a static-image podcast or a bhajan loop, practical quality needs may differ from a high-motion 60 fps programme.
Before committing to a format, compare its visual quality on your actual source file with the data volume it implies. You can also review how to prepare video files for an always-on stream so that the file and playback workflow are settled before you start calculating a month of continuous transfer. The preparation article is about source media, not an OCI pricing guarantee; the transfer estimate still follows the encoder’s outgoing rate.
For an estimate that reflects your setup, write down the selected video bitrate, whether the audio rate is already included, the expected hours online in the billing month, and whether a backup stream runs in parallel. Apply the formula to each distinct feed that transmits. Do not assume a secondary feed is free of egress simply because it exists for reliability.
Compare the result with applicable OCI allowance
Oracle’s public Virtual Cloud Network pricing page lists the first 10 TB per month of public internet egress as free, and Oracle’s Always Free resources page separately describes 10 TB per month of outbound data. Those descriptions do not, by themselves, tell you which entitlement applies to every reader’s tenancy or how its account is configured. Check the current allowance shown for your account in Oracle Console and in the relevant pricing terms.
The stream estimate is only one part of the comparison. Oracle’s allowance concerns eligible outbound data for the account, not a separate 10 TB bucket guaranteed to each individual video stream. Other resources in the tenancy may contribute outbound transfer in the same period. A channel below the stated threshold on its own can therefore still be part of an account whose total transfer exceeds it.
As a first check, compare like with like: estimate monthly stream data in a consistent unit, identify the allowance applicable to the account, and add other expected outbound traffic. If the account’s applicable allowance is 10 TB per month, the 1080p60 example at about 5.55 decimal TB sits below that figure as a stream-only estimate. That does not establish that the tenancy as a whole stays below it.
The 2160p60 example at about 16.24 decimal TB is above a 10 decimal TB threshold before other traffic is counted. The difference is roughly 6.24 decimal TB on the same decimal basis. This comparison indicates that you should investigate potential overage; it is not a cost calculation, because account entitlement, billable unit conversions and region-specific pricing still need checking.
A longer calendar month also changes the result. The 30-day convention is useful for comparing options, but a month with more days has more streaming seconds at the same bitrate. For a billing-period estimate, use the actual duration and avoid rounding at every step. Keep a small note of the assumptions alongside the result so that a later review can distinguish a settings change from a price or allowance change.
Check account-specific pricing and limits
Oracle’s published global price list gives over-allowance outbound rates that vary by source region group. Its figures include $0.0085 per GB for North America, Europe and the UK; $0.0250 per GB for APAC, Japan and South America; and $0.0500 per GB for the Middle East and Africa. These rate figures were surfaced in Oracle’s global price list, with search publication metadata approximately nine months before 3 October 2026; that metadata is not a verified effective date. Confirm the current applicable rate in Oracle’s own global price list or cost estimator before using it to forecast an individual bill.
The public OCI Virtual Cloud Network pricing page is also useful for reviewing the published public-internet egress allowance. Read the applicable price list and account terms together. A public page cannot determine from the article alone the tenancy’s region, entitlement, contract terms, current eligible allowance or the exact unit conversion applied to an invoice.
A rough formula, once the account terms and units are confirmed, is:
Estimated overage = max(0, monthly tenancy outbound data − applicable allowance) × applicable regional rate
Use this only after matching Oracle’s billing unit and pricing basis. If your volume is in decimal TB but the rate is applied per GB under a different billing convention, convert carefully rather than treating TB and TiB as synonyms. The examples above are useful for deciding what to check, not for stating a final charge.
Also check service and account limits relevant to the compute resource and network configuration you plan to use. Pricing and service limits are different questions: a transfer allowance does not confirm that a chosen instance, network path or workload can sustain the encoder’s required rate. Review the current OCI console and documentation for your region and account before relying on the configuration overnight.
For a dependable estimate, retain the calculation inputs, the date you checked Oracle’s price list, the source region and the allowance shown for the tenancy. Revisit them if you change resolution, bitrate, run time, source region or account plan. If a month-end bill differs, that record gives you a starting point for separating usage changes from pricing or unit assumptions.
Keep YouTube viewer delivery out of OCI ingest egress
It is easy to multiply the stream volume by the number of viewers, but that is the wrong model for this OCI-to-YouTube estimate. Your encoder sends a live ingest feed to YouTube. YouTube states that it transcodes live input into multiple output formats for viewers, so the data YouTube distributes for playback is downstream of the connection being measured here.
For the stream-only OCI estimate, a hundred viewers do not turn one 17 Mbps ingest feed into a 1,700 Mbps OCI feed. The feed’s actual transmitted bitrate and duration are the inputs. Viewer count can matter to YouTube’s delivery operation, but it is not a multiplier for the traffic your OCI encoder sends into YouTube Live.
Keep this boundary clear when comparing operating choices. A host in OCI transmitting to YouTube is responsible for the outbound ingest transfer from that host; viewers watching the YouTube stream receive playback from YouTube. If you also serve files or video directly from OCI to viewers, that is separate outbound traffic and belongs in the tenancy-wide estimate.
The distinction can also help with troubleshooting. If viewers report buffering, look at the relevant playback and ingest indicators rather than attributing all viewer delivery to OCI egress. For a cloud-hosted encoder, the practical questions include whether its uplink can sustain the selected rate and whether the stream remains connected. The network troubleshooting guide for a cloud-hosted YouTube stream covers network checks; it does not replace checking OCI account billing details.
YouTube recommends RTMPS for live ingest and advises bandwidth headroom beyond the stream bitrate. That headroom helps the upload path cope with variation; it is not an instruction to inflate the bytes estimate by the same percentage. If a primary and backup feed are both transmitting, however, count both actual outbound streams in the OCI estimate.
For a channel that must continue while your own computer is off, StreamNeo removes the separate task of keeping an encoder running on that computer by turning an uploaded file into a YouTube live stream. That addresses continuity for a pre-recorded loop; it does not change what Oracle charges for an OCI workload you independently run, so keep any separate cloud traffic in the cost model.
Make the estimate useful before you commit
A calculation is most useful when it helps you choose between plausible setups. Compare bitrate and monthly volume alongside the image quality your viewers need, the account allowance, the source region’s rate and the uplink capacity needed to keep the broadcast stable. Lowering a bitrate can reduce data volume, but it should not leave a fast-moving scene visibly degraded or an audio-led programme difficult to listen to.
If you are choosing a more modest format for a devotional or study channel, test the loop and audio at the intended encoder settings before using the monthly estimate. For an 8 Mbps video setting with 128 kbps audio, the example calculation is about 2.63 decimal TB over 30 days. That is not a recommendation that every channel should use 720p60: the right setting depends on the source, motion, audience expectations and the encoder’s behaviour.
Plan for operational variation rather than treating the estimate as a ceiling. A stream may be restarted, reconfigured, or accompanied by a second feed during a failover test. Other jobs may use the same tenancy’s outbound transfer. If your usage is close to an allowance threshold, these sources of variation and unit differences deserve more attention than rounding the stream-only estimate to a whole number.
A small worksheet can keep the assumptions visible:
| Item to record | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Stream bitrate | Video plus audio if separately configured |
| Duration | Expected seconds or hours in the billing period |
| Feed count | Each concurrently transmitting primary or backup feed |
| Other outbound transfer | Expected traffic from other tenancy resources |
| Allowance and rate | Current account entitlement and source-region pricing |
| Unit basis | Oracle’s current billing unit and conversion |
When you schedule a playlist from prepared files, the CSV playlist scheduling guide can help organise what is broadcast, while the egress worksheet answers a different question: how much data leaves the OCI host. Keeping editorial scheduling separate from traffic accounting makes changes easier to trace.
If the estimate suggests that your chosen format may exceed the applicable allowance, compare alternatives using the same month duration and unit basis before deciding. You might test a lower bitrate, reduce hours online, or choose an operating arrangement that does not require your own OCI encoder. None of these choices removes the need to check the actual allowance and current pricing for any cloud resource you do use.
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
Does OCI’s 10 TB allowance automatically cover my 24/7 stream?
Not automatically. Oracle’s public pricing and Always Free pages describe a 10 TB monthly allowance, but you need to confirm what applies to your tenancy in Oracle Console and account terms. The stream estimate also excludes other outbound data from the tenancy.
How much data does a 1080p60 stream use in a month?
Using YouTube’s recommended 17 Mbps H.264 video bitrate plus 128 kbps stereo audio, a constant stream running for a 30-day month is approximately 5.55 decimal TB. Treat that as a calculation from recommended settings, not a measurement or guarantee of your encoder’s output.
Do YouTube viewers increase OCI egress for the ingest stream?
No, not in this model. OCI sends the encoder feed to YouTube, which transcodes live input and delivers playback to viewers. Count any separate content served directly from OCI as its own outbound traffic.
How can I turn the estimate into a cost?
First total the account’s expected monthly outbound data, subtract only the allowance that Oracle confirms applies, and use the current rate for the source region. Match the billing units and check Oracle’s current pricing or cost estimator; do not infer an exact bill from the stream-only example.