Free security planning tool
Estimate camera storage, retention, bitrate, and practical usable capacity. Results update immediately and remain in your browser.
Estimated storage required
2.59 TB
30 days at an estimated 2 Mbps per camera.
Per camera per day
21.6 GB
Total per day
86.4 GB
Recommended usable storage
3.11 TB
Includes configured overhead.
Suggested minimum capacity
4 TB
Rounded upward for planning.
Real usage varies with scene activity, codec settings, firmware, bitrate control, frame rate, audio, and motion detection. This is a bitrate-driven estimate, not an exact hardware guarantee.
Need a complete plan?
These calculations cover one part of a security deployment. Get a broader assessment of cameras, connectivity, power, coverage, monitoring, and mobile surveillance requirements.
Storage is driven by average bitrate, recording activity, camera count, and retention—not resolution alone. A quiet H.265 scene can consume far less capacity than a busy scene using the same resolution.
Plan usable capacity above the arithmetic result so firmware behavior, metadata, audio, and real-world scene changes do not consume the entire recorder.
H.265 can reduce bitrate for comparable image quality, but actual improvement varies by camera, scene, and encoder settings. Compatibility and playback performance also matter.
Continuous recording is easier to model and preserves every moment. Event recording can save space, but only when detection is configured well enough to capture relevant activity.
There is no universal 4K storage number. Frame rate, compression, image noise, movement, audio, and bitrate limits can change usage substantially. Retention requirements also vary by operational purpose, contracts, and applicable rules.
Frequently asked questions
The estimate converts average megabits per second into gigabytes per day, applies recording activity, multiplies by camera count and retention, then adds configurable overhead.
RAID changes usable capacity according to drive count, layout, controller, and protection level. Treat raw drive totals and usable recorder capacity as different values.
Keep planning