Intro

Live streaming requires two things: powerful hardware and a good internet upload speed.

You can find hardware that handles encoding for live video (and playing video games simultaneously) in a smartphone or a decent computer. Getting a skillful upload speed for streaming is trickier.

Earlier you start calling your Internet access provider to inquire about more than bandwidth, you need to know what a good upload speed for streaming is. Unfortunately, there'south no straightforward reply to this question.

A skillful upload speed allows yous to stream the content you desire to the platform of your choice without any major problems. It should also be capable of delivering your content at a quality that will non disadvantage you or brand your stream less highly-seasoned than others.

Basically, anything between 672 kbps and 61.5 Mbps is ideal.

A good upload speed for streaming is between 672 kbps and 61.5 Mbps

Non a slap-up respond, right? There are some generally accepted values for expert upload speeds, which are worth knowing. Only we'll also dig a chip deeper to find a good upload speed for your detail live stream needs.

🤓 Agreement download/upload speeds

What do you think people do the nearly online? We know that the nearly popular website in the world is Google. Information technology's followed by YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Wikipedia. Then that's ane search engine, an encyclopedia, ii social networks, and a video platform/social network.

People consume content online. They seek it out, place it, and then read, listen, or lookout man it. To be able to do that, their devices need to ingest data, which comes to them in the form of $.25. Your cyberspace connection's download charge per unit shows y'all how many $.25 of data your reckoner or device can have in from the internet using that connexion. Usually, the rate (also referred to as bitrate) is expressed in millions of $.25 — or megabits — per second (Mbps).

Information technology's your connection'due south upload rate that matters the almost.

When you create content and want to share it online, information technology's your connection'south upload rate that matters the most. It's the same as the download rate; it just works the other way effectually, showing how many bits of information yous can share per second. It's also expressed in Mbps. Information shows that, globally, upload rates are slower than download rates.

👀 What is a skillful upload speed for streaming?

Streaming live video tin can take up a lot of bandwidth. Just how much will depend on several factors. Encoding matters, only so does the type of content y'all want to stream. Platforms play a part, as exercise the resolution (expressed in pixels, or p) and the frame rate (frames per 2nd, or fps) of your stream.

Say you lot want to live stream a video of yourself interviewing someone. You're choosing between Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and Twitch. Since all these platforms support live streaming video resolution of 720p, nosotros'll use the bitrate recommendations from each platform:

  • Facebook Alive recommends a max bitrate of 4,000 kbps, plus a max audio bitrate of 128 kbps.
  • YouTube Live recommends a range between ane,500 and 4,000 kbps for video, plus 128 kbps for audio.
  • Twitch recommends a range between 2,500 and 4,000 kbps for video, plus up to 160 kbps for audio.

If you're streaming alive video at a resolution of 720p, at 30 frames per second, you will upload up to 4,160 kilobits, or four.16 Mbps, of data per second. So having an upload bandwidth of effectually four Mbps should cover you, right?

Not quite. You will need to upload upward to four,160 kilobits of data per 2d constantly. Because these speeds fluctuate, information technology'due south a good idea to have a 35% to xl% buffer. That puts us at an upload rate of around 5,700 kilobits per 2nd, or 5.vii Mbps. However, if you are sure your internet connexion is stable, such a buffer might not exist needed. Recollect, a stable connectedness is every bit important equally upload speed!

It's generally a good idea to have a 35% to 40% buffer

For various reasons, your ISP's declared upload bandwidth and the bodily upload speed you can achieve with your connectedness can be very different. That's why y'all should always test your upload speed using online speed tests. The number you get from these tests should be up to five.7 Mbps if you want to stream 720p video at thirty frames per second.

Read later: The only multistreaming guide you'll always need 📍

💁‍♂️ The many variables affecting upload speed requirements

The v.seven Mbps upload speed for 720p video at 30 frames per 2nd is the upper limit. You can still alive stream 720p video with a lower upload speed. If the whole video is a unmarried shot of you lot talking, 4,000 kbps might be too high of a bitrate. You would probably be fine if you reduced it by half.

If, on the other hand, y'all want to stream video games or events with tons of visual data, iv,000 kbps is necessary. The faster the pace of the visuals, the higher your bitrate should be. The type of content yous stream affects what a good upload speed is for you.

Let's stay with video games. If you're streaming games with fast-paced action, you should ensure that your viewers see what's going on as clearly as possible. Yous might want to stream at more than 30 frames per second.

However, more frames per second requires a higher bitrate. For Twitch, it pushes the range for 720p video to between iii,500 and v,000 kbps. YouTube Live recommends 2,250 to half-dozen,000 Kbps. When you factor in these requirements, that'south a 6.2 Mbps upload speed for Twitch and vii.4 Mbps for YouTube Live if you want to stream 720p video at 60 frames per 2d. Also, keep in mind that these are just the highest optimal values.

A good upload speed for your live streaming will vary from i platform to another.

On Facebook, outset streamers can merely stream upwards to 720p video, so there's no need to have more than v Mbps. In order to live stream Full HD videos, you need to utilize for their Level Upwardly affiliate program.

Twitch allows up to 1080p video at sixty frames per second. Yous'll need an upload speed of up to 7.4 Mbps to support that.

YouTube Live supports 4k live streaming at threescore frames per 2nd. It recommends a bitrate in the range of 20,000 to 51,000 kbps. You'd need an upload speed of 68.8 Mbps to pull that off. That's but above the average upload speed in the District of Columbia, the area with the highest median upload speed in the United States.

Finally, your competitors might impact your upload speed requirements. Twitch and YouTube are crowded with streamers trying to employ the platforms to generate income. If you're streaming too, you cannot afford to fall behind on video quality. Ameliorate quality requires higher upload speeds, and so the competition will eventually push you to increment your upload rate.

🤩 What upload speeds should I exist aiming for?

With all these variables in listen, you shouldn't ask what a "good" upload speed is. Instead, it'southward improve to ask which speed you should aim for in your circumstances.