Live Streaming Bandwidth Calculator – How Much Do You Really Need?

Understand your bandwidth like a Pro!

When you’re doing a live stream, you’re sending video from your camera to the internet – and other people are watching it. The more people watch, the more internet “juice” (bandwidth) you use.

So how can you know how much bandwidth you’ll need?

It’s easy!

We use this formula:

Bitrate × Number of Viewers × Time

Let’s break it down:

• Bitrate is how fast your video is being sent. For example, 720p video usually needs around 1 Mbps (that’s 1 Megabit per second).

• Number of viewers is how many people are watching your live stream at the same time.

• Time is how long your live stream lasts, in minutes or hours.

🧠 Example – Let’s say:

You’re streaming at 1 Mbps,
You have 50,000 viewers,
And your live stream is 2 hours (120 minutes).

Your calculation would be:

1 Mbps × 50,000 viewers × 120 minutes = 6,000,000 Megabits

Now, divide that by 8 to turn Megabits into Megabytes, and again by 1024 to get Gigabytes:

➡️ You’ll use around 732 GB of bandwidth.

⚠️ Why This Matters

If your server doesn’t have enough bandwidth, your viewers might see buffering or freezing. Nobody wants that!

Use this page to estimate your usage, so you can pick the right plan and avoid surprises.