Free calculator

Storage calculator

What capacity is needed to keep the recordings for the retention period the client requires.

Standards & referencesITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10ITU-T H.265 | ISO/IEC 23008-2Retention set by law or policy

100 = always recording
Per-camera bitrate—
Per day (all)—
Total for the period—

How it is calculated

  1. No standard fixes GB per camera per day. What is standardised is the coding: bitrate depends on the codec — H.264 (ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10) and H.265 (ITU-T H.265 | ISO/IEC 23008-2), which takes roughly half for the same quality.
  2. The estimated bitrate comes from resolution, frames per second and codec, multiplied by the number of cameras and the fraction of the day they record. This is the stated assumption: scene, noise and motion move the real bitrate, and each manufacturer publishes its own table.
  3. Retention days are not a technical choice — they come from data-protection law or client policy. The total is the daily volume times those days.

A decision-support estimate. For full sizing — on the real floor plan, both standards in parallel, theoretical and corrected, and the vendor-neutral spec — use B-PLAN.

Open B-PLAN →

The four calculators, in order

Each answers one question and hands its result to the next. Together they follow the same path B-PLAN takes on the real floor plan.

1Camera requirementWhat the system has to be able to see2Lens & field of viewWhich optics meet that requirement3PoE budgetWhat power the installation needs
4StorageWhat capacity holds the retention periodYou are here