Video Frame Size Calculator
Enter your video resolution, color depth, frame rate, and clip length to find out how large each uncompressed frame is and how much raw storage the whole video needs. Pick a common resolution preset or type your own pixel dimensions. Results update instantly in bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes.
What is video frame size and why does it matter?
Video frame size is the amount of data contained in a single image within a video clip, expressed in bytes. Every frame is a grid of pixels, and each pixel stores a color value whose precision is set by the color depth. Multiply the pixel count by the bits per pixel, divide by eight, and you have the raw (uncompressed) bytes for one frame. Knowing this number matters for three practical reasons: sizing storage for camera recordings or editing drives, confirming a disk or memory card can sustain the required data throughput, and estimating how much a codec needs to compress the raw signal to hit a target bitrate.
How the calculation works
The formula has two stages. For a single frame: frame size (bytes) = width (px) x height (px) x color depth (bits) / 8. For a full clip: total size = frame size x frame rate (fps) x duration (seconds). For example, a 1920 x 1080 frame at 24-bit color contains 2,073,600 pixels, each storing 24 bits, giving 49,766,400 bits or 5.93 MB per frame. At 24 fps over 60 seconds that is 5.93 x 24 x 60, roughly 8.54 GB of raw video. Real codecs such as H.264 or ProRes compress that to a fraction of the size, but the uncompressed figure tells you the worst-case floor for storage and bandwidth.
Color depth explained
Color depth, also called bit depth, controls how many distinct colors each pixel can represent. The standard for consumer displays is 24-bit (8 bits per red, green, and blue channel), covering about 16.7 million colors. Professional cameras and HDR workflows use 10-bit or 12-bit per channel to avoid visible banding in gradients. Broadcast masters sometimes target 16-bit. A 32-bit format adds an 8-bit alpha (transparency) channel on top of the 24-bit color. Switching from 24-bit to 10-bit per channel (30-bit total) adds 25 percent to every frame; switching to 12-bit per channel (36-bit) adds 50 percent.
Frame rate and storage trade-offs
Frame rate (fps) scales storage linearly: doubling the frame rate doubles the data. Cinema traditionally uses 24 fps, which minimizes storage while still appearing smooth to the eye. PAL broadcast (Europe) runs at 25 fps, NTSC broadcast (North America) at 29.97 fps. Modern gaming content, sports broadcasts, and streaming platforms increasingly use 60 fps for sharper motion, but this comes with a 2.5x storage penalty versus 24 fps. Slow-motion capture at 120 fps or higher multiplies storage by five or more, which is why high-frame-rate clips are often captured in compressed formats directly in-camera.
Common video resolutions and uncompressed frame sizes
| Resolution | Name | Pixels | Frame size at 24-bit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 640 x 480 | SD | 307,200 | 0.88 MB |
| 1280 x 720 | HD 720p | 921,600 | 2.64 MB |
| 1920 x 1080 | Full HD | 2,073,600 | 5.93 MB |
| 2560 x 1440 | QHD 1440p | 3,686,400 | 10.55 MB |
| 3840 x 2160 | 4K UHD | 8,294,400 | 23.73 MB |
| 7680 x 4320 | 8K UHD | 33,177,600 | 94.92 MB |
Frame sizes calculated at 24-bit color depth (true color). Actual size scales with color depth.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between frame size and file size?
Frame size is the raw data in one uncompressed image. File size is the actual size of the video file on disk after a codec has compressed it. Codecs such as H.264, H.265, and AV1 remove spatial and temporal redundancy across frames, typically achieving 10:1 to 100:1 compression ratios, so a 1-minute 1080p clip that would be 8 GB uncompressed might only be 500 MB as a high-quality H.264 file.
Does this calculator include audio in the file size?
No. This tool calculates only the raw video data. Audio tracks typically add a few hundred kilobytes per minute for stereo at standard bitrates, which is a negligible fraction of the video size. Add your audio bitrate (e.g. 320 kbps for high-quality stereo) multiplied by duration separately if you need an exact total.
Why is 1 KB = 1,024 bytes and not 1,000?
Storage hardware manufacturers often use 1 KB = 1,000 bytes (SI prefix), which makes drive capacities look larger. Operating systems traditionally use 1 KB = 1,024 bytes (binary prefix, properly called KiB). This calculator uses the binary convention (1,024) because video editing software, codecs, and RAM specifications all follow the binary standard. This is why a drive advertised as 1 TB appears as about 931 GB in Windows or macOS.
What color depth should I use for 4K HDR footage?
Most 4K HDR camera formats record in 10-bit color (sometimes labeled as "10-bit 4:2:0" or "10-bit 4:2:2"). Cinema cameras and high-end mirrorless cameras can also record 12-bit RAW. If you are estimating storage for a camera shoot, check the camera manual for its bit depth setting. Consumer smartphones record in 8-bit (sometimes 10-bit Dolby Vision) even in HDR mode.
How does 4K compare to 1080p in terms of storage?
4K UHD (3840 x 2160) has exactly four times the pixels of Full HD (1920 x 1080) because it doubles both width and height. At the same color depth and frame rate it therefore uses exactly four times the storage: a 1-minute 1080p clip at 24-bit 24 fps is about 8.5 GB uncompressed, while the equivalent 4K clip is about 34 GB. Compression helps significantly, but the 4:1 ratio holds for the raw data.
What data rate does my storage drive need?
The data rate output shows how many MB per second your drive must sustain for uncompressed playback or recording. A standard SATA SSD delivers about 500-600 MB/s. An NVMe SSD can reach 3,000-7,000 MB/s. A typical 1080p 24fps 24-bit stream needs about 142 MB/s uncompressed, well within SSD range. Uncompressed 4K at 60fps needs about 1,423 MB/s, which requires a fast NVMe drive or a RAID setup.
Can I use this for compressed formats like H.264 or ProRes?
This calculator gives you the uncompressed baseline. For compressed formats, multiply the uncompressed data rate by the compression ratio for your codec and quality setting. H.264 at typical streaming quality compresses roughly 50:1 to 100:1, ProRes 422 compresses roughly 6:1 to 8:1, and ProRes RAW sits around 3:1 to 5:1. Codec manufacturers and camera specs list target bitrates (e.g. "100 Mbps 4K H.265") that you can use directly for real-world file size estimation.