One hour of game recording takes bitrate (Mbps) × 3600 ÷ 8 ÷ 1000 gigabytes (decimal), so a 12 Mbps recording works out to 5.4 GB per hour.
That number is arithmetic, not a measured file size, and the bitrates in the table below are YouTube's recommended upload values used as examples, not recording recommendations. This article covers game recording on a PC, using OBS Studio settings as the reference, not consoles or mobile.
Everything here is as checked on September 30, 2026. If your drive is already filling up, start with how to reduce game recording file size, then come back to estimate how much free space you actually need.
GB per hour by example bitrate (calculated)
| Resolution and frame rate (SDR unless noted) | Example bitrate | Calculated GB per hour |
|---|---|---|
| 720p · 24–30 fps | 5 Mbps (5000 kbps) | 2.25 GB |
| 720p · 48–60 fps | 7.5 Mbps (7500 kbps) | 3.375 GB (about 3.4) |
| 1080p · 24–30 fps | 8 Mbps (8000 kbps) | 3.6 GB |
| 1080p · 48–60 fps | 12 Mbps (12000 kbps) | 5.4 GB |
| 1080p · 48–60 fps · HDR | 15 Mbps (15000 kbps) | 6.75 GB |
| 1440p · 24–30 fps | 16 Mbps (16000 kbps) | 7.2 GB |
| 1440p · 48–60 fps | 24 Mbps (24000 kbps) | 10.8 GB |
| 2160p (4K) · 24–30 fps | 35–45 Mbps | 15.75–20.25 GB |
| 2160p (4K) · 48–60 fps | 53–68 Mbps | 23.85–30.6 GB |
How much space does a month of game recording take?
Hourly numbers only make sense once you multiply them by how much you actually play. The table below does that for the example settings above: record 1080p at 60 fps and 12 Mbps for 2 hours a day, and a 30-day month adds up to 324 GB of video.
A 1 TB drive with nothing else on it would last about three months at that pace, and a system SSD with 300 GB free would run out in under four weeks. At 1440p the same playtime takes twice the space, and at 4K more than four times as much. Pick the drive for your recording folder with these numbers in mind, and see how to change your recording save location if it needs to move.
| Example setting | 1 hour | 1 hour a day for 30 days | 2 hours a day for 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 720p 60 fps · 7.5 Mbps | 3.375 GB | about 101 GB | about 203 GB |
| 1080p 30 fps · 8 Mbps | 3.6 GB | 108 GB | 216 GB |
| 1080p 60 fps · 12 Mbps | 5.4 GB | 162 GB | 324 GB |
| 1440p 60 fps · 24 Mbps | 10.8 GB | 324 GB | 648 GB |
| 4K 60 fps · 53–68 Mbps | 23.85–30.6 GB | about 716–918 GB | about 1.4–1.8 TB |
Recording every day also means clearing space every week, unless the recorder does it for you. DOR is a free Windows app that detects supported games when you launch them and records the whole session, and every recording lands in My Clips inside the app.
DOR sets aside a share of storage for full gameplay videos, 5 GB by default, and only once that share is exceeded does it clear the oldest videos first; your latest recordings and anything you have liked stay put.
So even a habit that piles up hundreds of gigabytes a month does not turn into a manual cleanup job; like the matches you want to keep and you are done. When you want a clip, trim the part you need in the app and save it as 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1. How DOR auto recording works walks through the rest.
Bottom line: the table is a starting point, encoder settings decide the real size
The GB figures in the table assume the chosen bitrate is written steadily for the whole hour, so they do not guarantee the size of a real game recording.
According to OBS's official documentation (as checked on September 30, 2026), Advanced-mode recording uses Constant QP for NVENC, CRF for x264, CQP for AMD and ICQ for Quicksync, all with a quality value in the 16-23 range, and a lower number means higher quality and a larger file.
Those are quality targets rather than fixed bitrates, so the bits per second change with the scene. The Simple-mode Lossless preset is described as around 7 GB per minute, which multiplies out to roughly 420 GB per hour, so it belongs in a class of its own when you plan long sessions.
OBS's documents give no percentage for container overhead, so this article does not claim one either. Choosing the bitrate itself is covered in the game recording bitrate guide.
How to calculate hourly size and free disk space
- 1Find the bitrate value and its unitOpen Settings > Output in OBS and read the video bitrate. Wherever you type the bitrate yourself it is entered in kbps, so 12000 means 12 Mbps. If you use a quality-based method such as CQP or CRF in Advanced mode, there is no fixed bitrate to read, so rely on the test recording in the last step.
- 2Convert kbps to Mbps1 Mbps equals 1000 kbps, so 8000 kbps is 8 Mbps and 12000 kbps is 12 Mbps. If you already know the value in Mbps, skip this step.
- 3Apply the formula for GB per hourCalculate Mbps × 3600 ÷ 8 ÷ 1000. The 3600 is the seconds in an hour, 8 turns bits into bytes, and 1000 turns MB into GB. At 12 Mbps that is 12 × 3600 ÷ 8 ÷ 1000 = 5.4 GB.
- 4Add the audioThe table covers video bitrate only. If you take YouTube's recommended 384 kbps for stereo audio (0.384 Mbps) as an example, it adds about 0.17 GB per hour (0.1728 calculated). YouTube's document also says the audio bitrate does not depend on video resolution.
- 5Multiply by your recording timeMultiply by the hours you record per day or week. At 5.4 GB per hour, 3 hours is 16.2 GB, and 500 GB of free space would hold about 92 hours (500 ÷ 5.4). Leave room for the operating system and other files, so plan with more headroom than the calculation.
- 6Confirm with a test recordingWith a quality-based mode, record about 5 minutes of a game you actually play, check the file size and multiply by 12 for an hourly estimate. Include both busy fights and quiet lobby time, because size changes with the scene.
Storage check before you record
- I checked whether my bitrate is in kbps or Mbps.
- I know the table covers video only and added about 0.17 GB for audio (384 kbps example).
- I know GB here is decimal (1 GB = 1000 MB), so a file explorer may show slightly different numbers.
- If I use a quality-based Advanced mode (CQP, CRF, ICQ, Constant QP), I know the size is not fixed and I ran a test recording.
- I confirmed the drive holding my recording folder has more free space than the calculation.
- I treated the YouTube table as upload guidance, not as a recommended recording setting.
When you would rather not calculate or tune anything
If sizing files and tuning encoder settings by hand feels like too much, DOR is one option. It is a free Windows desktop app that detects supported games automatically and records the full match to mp4.
On supported NVIDIA graphics cards such as the RTX series it records with NVENC hardware encoding, and on other PCs it records with CPU encoding. The game's audio and your microphone are written into the same file, which suits people who want whole matches kept to review later.
To see how much DOR uses on your own PC, record one match, note the file size and its length, and convert it to an hourly number with the steps above. If long sessions worry you, read how to record long gameplay without stutter, and for a wider look at free tools see how to record gameplay for free.
