How much data does live streaming use?

Bitrate is measured in megabits per second, and data is sold in gigabytes. A megabit is an eighth of a megabyte, and there are 3,600 seconds in an hour, so one megabit per second held for an hour is 450 megabytes, or 0.45 GB. Multiply your bitrate by 0.45 and you have your gigabytes per hour of video.

The second figure on each line below adds the 20% to plan on when the stream travels over mobile networks. It is the figure to budget with.

• 4 Mbps: about 1.8 GB an hour of video, about 2.2 GB an hour to plan on.
• 6 Mbps: about 2.7 GB an hour of video, about 3.2 GB an hour to plan on.
• 8 Mbps: about 3.6 GB an hour of video, about 4.3 GB an hour to plan on.
• 12 Mbps: about 5.4 GB an hour of video, about 6.5 GB an hour to plan on.
• 20 Mbps: about 9.0 GB an hour of video, about 10.8 GB an hour to plan on.

The number that matters is the one you set where your video is compressed: in your phone’s streaming app, in OBS, or on your Unit. As a guide, about 8 Mbps suits 1080p and about 20 Mbps suits 4K. Between 4 and 8 Mbps is the usual range for 1080p at 60 frames a second.

Resolution does not decide how much data you use. Bitrate does. A 720p stream at 6 Mbps uses more than a 1080p stream at 4 Mbps. Dropping the resolution only saves data because it lets you drop the bitrate without the picture falling apart.

Every platform publishes the highest bitrate it accepts, and it is not the same everywhere, so check the one you stream to before you settle on a number. Sound adds a little on top, a small fraction of a megabit, which is why nobody budgets for it separately.

A stream over mobile networks is never just the video. When a packet is lost on the way it is sent again, and when one stream is split across several connections there is a cost to splitting it and putting it back together. On a clean connection that adds little. The normal planning range is 15 to 25%, and 20% is the figure to plan on.

A poor network pushes it higher. At 8 Mbps, a bad signal or a crowded cell can take you from about 4.3 GB an hour towards 5 GB an hour, because more of what you send has to be sent twice.

This is why a Lumbus SIM allowance is described the way it is: it includes the traffic used to protect your stream, such as bonding overhead and retransmissions, and actual usage depends on bitrate, network quality and redundancy settings.

No. Bonding splits one stream across the connections you have. It does not send a copy down each one. Two connections, six or twelve carry the same total between them.

At 8 Mbps that total is about 4.3 GB an hour. Across two connections each carries about 2.16 GB an hour; across four, about 1.08 GB each. Weak networks and heavier redundancy settings raise usage. The number of connections by itself does not.

Divide the allowance by your gigabytes per hour. At 8 Mbps, with overhead counted:

• 100 GB is around 23 hours on air.
• 250 GB is around 58 hours.
• 500 GB is around 116 hours.
• Three hours a day, five days a week, comes to about 280 GB a month.
• Streaming around the clock for a 30-day month is about 3.1 TB.

The same sum applies. Streaming is upload, and a phone plan counts what you send as well as what you receive, so a two-hour stream at 6 Mbps takes between 5 and 7 GB out of your plan however little you download.

Read the terms of a plan that is sold as unlimited. Many of them slow down after a set amount, and a slowed connection rarely carries a video stream. The terms say where that point is.

Lumbus SIMs are made for streaming hardware. They go in a Unit or another transmitter/encoder, not in a phone. If you stream from a phone today, keep the plan you already pay for.

Everything above is what your connections carry. A bonding service counts what passes through it, which is more: the bonded stream coming in, plus a copy going out for every destination it delivers to.

For Lumbus Connect, every 100 GB of bonded streaming comes to about 183 GB to one destination, 267 GB to two and 433 GB to four. Send to Lumbus Studio instead and all your platforms count as one destination, because the studio sends to them from Lumbus.

It is also why the 100 GB bonding allowance that comes with a Niña or a Pinta is a starter: to one destination it covers about 55 GB of bonded streaming. The estimator on the Connectivity page works out both figures for your bitrate, hours and destinations.