Stream bitrate in 2026: table by resolution, codec and platform

Stream bitrate in 2026 is set by two limits: the platform's cap and your upload speed. On Twitch in standard mode that is up to 6000 kbps in H.264, and with Enhanced Broadcasting up to 7.5 Mbps at 1080p and up to 9 Mbps at 1440p on HEVC. Kick accepts 1000–8000 kbps in H.264 only, VK Video Live advises 4500–9000 kbps for 1080p60, and YouTube recommends 17 Mbps in H.264 or 12 Mbps in HEVC and AV1 for 1080p60. Use CBR everywhere, set keyframes every 2 seconds, and keep the bitrate at no more than about 75% of your stable upload speed.

Bitrate table by resolution and codec

The figures below are for video only; audio is counted separately. Where a platform gives a range, the range is shown. Where there is no official figure, that is noted.

Resolution and FPS	H.264	HEVC / AV1	Platform
720p, 30 FPS	3000 kbps	not used	Twitch
720p, 30–60 FPS	recommended 8 Mbps, minimum 3	6 Mbps, minimum 2	YouTube
720p, 30 / 60 FPS	1500–4000 / 2250–6000 kbps	not specified	VK Video Live
720p, 60 FPS	4500 kbps	not used	Twitch
1080p, 30 FPS	recommended 14 Mbps	10 Mbps	YouTube
1080p, 30 FPS	3000–6000 kbps	not specified	VK Video Live
1080p, 60 FPS	6000 kbps, up to 7500 with Enhanced Broadcasting	not used for 1080p	Twitch
1080p, 60 FPS	up to 8000 kbps	not supported	Kick
1080p, 60 FPS	recommended 17 Mbps, minimum 6	12 Mbps, minimum 4	YouTube
1080p, 60 FPS	4500–9000 kbps	not specified	VK Video Live
1440p (2K)	not used	HEVC up to 9 Mbps, partners and affiliates only	Twitch, Enhanced Broadcasting
1440p, 30 / 60 FPS	21 / 34 Mbps	15 / 24 Mbps	YouTube
1440p, 30 / 60 FPS	7000–10000 / 9000–14000 kbps	not specified	VK Video Live
2160p (4K), 30 / 60 FPS	42 / 50 Mbps	30 / 35 Mbps	YouTube

Twitch does not currently publish separate figures for 1080p30: in practice 4500–6000 kbps is enough. Kick also does not break its bitrate down by resolution, only a general range of 1000–8000 kbps and a maximum of 1920×1080 at 60 FPS. We worked out how to convert any row of the table into the internet speed you need in our article on what internet speed you need for streaming.

Platform limits in brief

Twitch

The classic mode is H.264 with a 6000 kbps ceiling. This value is built into the Twitch profile in OBS itself, along with a keyframe interval of 2 seconds. In June 2026 Twitch raised its bitrates: up to 7.5 Mbps for 1080p and up to 9 Mbps for 1440p. This works through Enhanced Broadcasting: OBS encodes several versions of the stream on your graphics card and receives its settings from Twitch, so the bitrate is not set manually there. 2K uses HEVC and is available to partners and affiliates, while 1080p and below stay on H.264 (AVC). The announcement says nothing about AV1, so do not plan on it for Twitch.

YouTube

The most generous platform: it accepts H.264, HEVC and AV1, resolutions up to 4K and frame rates up to 60. The bitrates recommended in Google's help pages are noticeably higher than Twitch's, and for HEVC and AV1 they are about 30% lower than for H.264 at the same picture quality. Keyframes every 2 seconds, no more than 4. Mode: CBR. For audio, YouTube advises AAC at 128 kbps stereo.

Kick

H.264 only, CBR only: Kick does not accept variable bitrate. The range is 1000–8000 kbps, the maximum is 1080p60, the profile is main, and keyframes are every 2 seconds. If the stream keeps dropping, Kick advises lowering the bitrate in steps of 1000 kbps.

VK Video Live

VK gives a range for every resolution, from 1500–4000 kbps for 720p30 to 9000–14000 kbps for 1440p60. Its help pages mention the x264 and NVENC encoders and give no separate figures for HEVC and AV1, so stream in H.264. Audio goes up to 320 kbps.

CBR or VBR

CBR (constant bitrate) keeps the stream even, so the platform's server receives a predictable amount of data every second. Always choose it for live streaming: Kick does not work without CBR, and YouTube explicitly recommends it. Twitch Inspector also shows how steady your stream is.

VBR (variable bitrate) spends more data on complex scenes and saves on simple ones. That is good for a file but risky for a stream: at the moment of an explosion or a sharp camera turn the stream spikes, hits your upload limit, and OBS starts dropping frames. Keep VBR and CQP for recording.

Keyframes

A keyframe is a full snapshot of the picture, while the other frames store only the changes. All four platforms expect an interval of 2 seconds. In OBS the value 0 means automatic, and then the encoder may place keyframes less often than needed: viewers wait longer for the player to start and the platform switches quality less smoothly. Set 2 manually. Going more often, for example 1 second, is not needed either: every keyframe is heavy, and at the same bitrate the picture between them gets worse.

x264 and NVENC presets

A preset determines how much effort the encoder puts into compression. The slower the preset, the better the picture at the same bitrate and the higher the load.

• NVENC (NVIDIA graphics cards). In its OBS guide NVIDIA advises P6 Slower, the High Quality tuning, Two Passes at quarter resolution, Look-ahead and Psycho Visual Tuning enabled, and up to 4 B-frames (2 if Look-ahead is off). For NVENC and AMD, Kick also recommends P6. If your graphics card is at 100% load from the game, turn off Look-ahead and drop to P5 or P4.
• x264 (CPU). The starting preset is veryfast, which Kick names too. If OBS reports frame delays due to encoding, switch to superfast. The faster and fast presets give a cleaner picture, but only powerful processors or a separate streaming PC can handle them.
• AMD AMF and Intel QSV. The logic is the same: start with a quality preset and move to a faster one if you get skipped frames from encoding.

With a 6000 kbps limit, a good preset gives you more than an extra 500 kbps of bitrate. For a detailed comparison of CPU and hardware encoding, see x264 vs NVENC.

Bitrate too high or too low: how to tell

In OBS open View → Stats and run a 15–20 minute test stream in the game you plan to stream.

The bitrate is too high if:

• the counter of frames dropped due to the network keeps growing and the indicator at the bottom of OBS is yellow or red;
• viewers complain about buffering while everything is smooth in your game;
• problems start in the evening or when someone at home starts a video call.

Lower it in steps of 500–1000 kbps until the drops disappear. If frames are dropped "due to encoding", the bitrate is not to blame, the load is: you need a faster preset.

The bitrate is too low if:

• the picture falls apart into blocks during a sharp camera turn;
• grass, foliage, rain, smoke and particles turn to mush;
• small interface text is only readable when static.

You have three options: raise the bitrate within the platform limit, lower the resolution (for example to 1280×720 or 1600×900), or lower the FPS to 30 if the game is calm. Everything about output settings, stats and Enhanced Broadcasting, step by step, is in our guide to OBS setup for streaming.

Fast-paced games and talk streams

An encoder struggles when the whole frame changes at once. That is why the same bitrate looks different in different genres.

Content type	What to set with a 6000 kbps limit
Shooters, racing, battle royales	720p60 or 900p60 at full bitrate if 1080p60 falls apart in motion
Third-person action, MOBA	1080p60 at 6000 kbps, quality preset
Strategy, card games, indie	1080p30 or 1080p60 at 4500–6000 kbps
Talk stream, Just Chatting, podcast	1080p30 at 3000–4500 kbps

In a talk stream the picture is almost static: camera, background, overlay. Extra bitrate there does not improve quality, it only loads the connection and mobile viewers. You can lower it in calm games too. In shooters, though, you cannot skimp: better to reduce the resolution than to get blocks on every turn.

Recording vs streaming: why recording needs a higher bitrate

A stream is limited by the platform cap and your internet, while a recording is limited only by your disk. If you record footage for editing or a YouTube video, set the quality well above the live one: after editing and recompression by the platform, a low-quality source loses even more.

• NVENC. For recording NVIDIA recommends CQP mode at level 15 (the lower the number, the better the quality) or VBR at 40,000 kbps with a maximum of 60,000. For maximum quality you can go up to 100,000 and 200,000.
• Upload reference. YouTube advises uploading 1080p60 SDR at a bitrate of about 12 Mbps and 1440p60 at about 24 Mbps. This is the lower bar for a finished video; make your editing source higher.
• Separate encoder. In OBS, on the Recording tab you can choose "Use stream encoder", and the file will have the live bitrate with no extra load. A separate recording encoder gives better quality but loads the graphics card more.

An hour of recording at 40 Mbps takes about 18 GB, so check your free disk space in advance.

When your stream is set up

The right bitrate makes the picture clean, but it will not bring viewers to your stream by itself: a new channel with zero viewers gets lost in the category directory. So that your first broadcasts do not go to an empty room, put together a plan in the viewer control panel and the audience will lift your channel in the list, where real people will notice it.

Frequently asked questions

What bitrate should I set on Twitch in 2026?

In standard mode up to 6000 kbps in H.264: 4500 for 720p60 and 6000 for 1080p60. With Enhanced Broadcasting Twitch raises the ceiling to 7.5 Mbps at 1080p and 9 Mbps at 1440p on HEVC, but the settings there are chosen automatically.

Can I set 8000 kbps on Twitch manually?

You should not. Twitch's classic limit is 6000 kbps, and the Twitch profile in OBS caps it at that value. Twitch provides higher bitrates through Enhanced Broadcasting. 8000 kbps is Kick's ceiling.

Which is better on YouTube: HEVC or AV1?

According to YouTube's table, the bitrates for both codecs are the same, about 30% lower than for H.264. Choose the one your graphics card supports in hardware. For HDR, YouTube recommends HEVC: AV1 is not supported in HDR.

What audio bitrate should I set?

AAC at 160 kbps stereo suits Twitch, YouTube and VK Video Live. YouTube itself advises 128 kbps, and VK allows up to 320 kbps.

With slow internet, what is better: lowering the bitrate or the resolution?

Resolution first. 720p60 at 4500 kbps looks cleaner than 1080p60 at the same 4500. For calm games and talk streams you can keep 1080p but lower the FPS to 30.

Why does the recording look better than the stream?

A recording is not limited by the platform cap or your upload speed, so it is made at a bitrate 5–10 times higher than the live one, or in CQP mode. If your recording looks soft too, check whether "Use stream encoder" is set on the Recording tab.