What bitrate should you use for 1080p and 4K video?
Updated 2026-06-21
There is no single "correct" bitrate — it depends on resolution, frame rate, how much motion is in the footage, and which codec you encode with. But there are well-established starting points.
Recommended bitrates (H.264, SDR)
These are good general-purpose targets, close to what YouTube recommends for uploads:
- 720p30 — about 5 Mbps
- 1080p30 — about 8 Mbps
- 1080p60 — about 12 Mbps
- 1440p30 — about 16 Mbps
- 4K30 — about 35–45 Mbps
- 4K60 — about 53–68 Mbps
Higher frame rates need more bitrate (more frames to encode), and fast-moving or grainy footage needs more than a static talking-head shot.
The codec changes everything
Those numbers assume H.264 (AVC). Newer codecs reach the same visual quality at a much lower bitrate:
- HEVC / H.265 — roughly half the bitrate of H.264
- AV1 — roughly half, sometimes less
- VP9 — in between
So a 4K30 clip that needs ~40 Mbps in H.264 might look just as good around 20–22 Mbps in HEVC or AV1.
A quick mental model: bits per pixel
Encoders ultimately spend bits on pixels. Dividing your bitrate by (width × height × fps) gives a "bits per pixel" figure that tells you whether you are starving the image or wasting space — roughly 0.1 is solid for streaming, below ~0.04 starts to look blocky.
Get the exact number
The Video File Size & Bitrate Calculator has a recommended-bitrate panel: choose your resolution, frame rate, codec and a quality target and it suggests a bitrate range, then loads it into the calculator so you can see the resulting file size. Everything runs in your browser.