CCTV / Surveillance Storage Calculator
Estimate camera recording storage from measured encoded bitrate and retention, then add an explicit entered headroom allowance. FPS and codec provide context only.
Interactive calculator · Method SURVEILLANCE-2.1 · Last reviewed: 2026-11-04
Estimate CCTV recording storage
Enter camera count, bitrate, recording hours, retention days, and motion-recording percentage to estimate storage before RAID or filesystem overhead.
Your inputs
Default worked example. Edit the inputs to calculate your scenario.
Default worked example
8 cameras × 4 Mbps × 24 hours/day × 30 days × 100% recording share produces 10.368 decimal TB before the entered 25% headroom.
How to use the calculator
Enter measured encoded bitrate, cameras, daily recording hours, retention and recording share. Enter additional storage headroom explicitly. Codec and FPS are recording context only.
What the result means
The first answer is recording bytes before headroom. The second adds only the allowance you entered. The RAID link rounds the resulting usable requirement upward to one decimal megabyte (0.000001 TB), carries it once and leaves it editable. Small positive answers use scientific notation; comparisons and transfer ceilings use unrounded values.
Formula and units
Decimal GB = cameras × Mbps × 10^6/8 × hours/day × 3600 × days × motion%/100 ÷ 10^9. Decimal TB = GB/1000. Headroom storage = TB × (1 + entered headroom/100).
Worked examples
Camera count: 8 cameras; Bitrate per camera (Mbps): 4 Mbps: Camera count: 8 cameras; Bitrate per camera (Mbps): 4 Mbps; FPS: 15 frames per second; Recording hours/day: 24 hours per day; Retention days: 30 days; Motion recording %: 100 %; Storage headroom allowance: 25 %; Compression type: H.265.
Example result: Recording storage: 10.368 TB; Storage with entered headroom: 12.96 TB; Storage per day: 345.6 GB; Storage per camera: 1,296 GB; Average recorded throughput: 32 Mbps; Entered headroom: 25%.
Camera count: 12 cameras; Bitrate per camera (Mbps): 6 Mbps: Camera count: 12 cameras; Bitrate per camera (Mbps): 6 Mbps; FPS: 23 frames per second; Recording hours/day: 24 hours per day; Retention days: 30 days; Motion recording %: 100 %; Storage headroom allowance: 25 %; Compression type: H.264.
Example result: Recording storage: 23.328 TB; Storage with entered headroom: 29.16 TB; Storage per day: 777.6 GB; Storage per camera: 1,944 GB; Average recorded throughput: 72 Mbps; Entered headroom: 25%.
Limitations and common mistakes
Variable bitrate, audio, indexing, filesystems and storage layouts can add requirements. Verify recording share empirically. Codec and FPS must already be reflected in the measured bitrate; RAID is not backup.
Do not multiply by codec or FPS after entering encoded bitrate. Do not confuse decimal TB with TiB or raw RAID capacity with usable retention storage.
Sources and assumptions
The storage conversion is mathematical; the entered bitrate, FPS, codec, and motion share must be measured or confirmed in camera settings.
Method SURVEILLANCE-2.1; last formula review 2026-11-04. Sources and their supported claims. Calculation methodology.