Security Camera Storage Calculator

Volume I · May 2026 · 632 words

Estimate the storage required for security camera footage based on resolution, frame rate, compression codec, and recording mode. Results help size microSD cards, NVR hard drives, or cloud storage plans for any number of cameras.

Camera resolution Frame rate (FPS) Compression codec Recording mode Number of cameras Retention days

Bitrate per camera—

Storage per camera per day (continuous)—

Total storage required—

Recommended hard drive size—

H.265 compression reduces storage requirements by approximately 50% compared to H.264 at equivalent quality. Cameras like the Reolink Argus 4 Pro and Eufy SoloCam S340 support H.265 encoding. Event-based recording — where the camera records only when motion is detected — reduces storage requirements to approximately 10–20% of continuous recording in a typical residential setting with 50–100 motion events per day. For continuous 24/7 recording, an NVR with a surveillance-rated hard drive (WD Purple, Seagate SkyHawk) is recommended over standard desktop drives, which are not rated for the sustained write workloads of multi-camera systems.