Video bitrate checker

YouTube's recommended upload settings in 2026

YouTube recommends H.264 in an MP4, at the bitrates below, with AAC-LC or Opus audio at 48 kHz. It says no bitrate limit is required and offers the bitrates for reference. The standard frame rates are 24, 25 and 30 fps; high frame rates are 48, 50 and 60.

Container

MP4moov atom at the front (Fast Start), no edit lists

Video codec

H.264, High ProfileProgressive, CABAC, 4:2:0, 2 consecutive B-frames, closed GOP of half the frame rate

Frame rate

As recordedCommon: 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, 60; deinterlace 1080i60 to 1080p30

Audio

AAC-LC or Opus, 48 kHzStereo, or stereo + 5.1

Audio bitrate

384 kbps stereo128 kbps mono, 512 kbps 5.1

Color (SDR)

BT.709Untagged video is treated as BT.709; full range is converted to limited

HDR

PQ or HLG, Rec. 202010 or 12 bits, 720p to 2160p; VP9 Profile 2, AV1 or HEVC recommended

Sources: YouTube Help: Recommended upload encoding settings, YouTube Help: Upload High Dynamic Range (HDR) videos and YouTube Help: Supported YouTube file formats (WebM is on the list, MKV isn't), read on October 28, 2026.

How the checker reads your file

An MP4 or MOV file keeps an index, the moov atom, that lists every frame: its size, its timing and whether it is a keyframe. The checker reads that index on your device, in pieces, so a 50 GB ProRes file is checked as fast as a phone clip. Video bitrate is the size of the video track divided by its length, which is what YouTube's table means. Overall bitrate is the whole file divided by its length, so it also counts the audio and the container. The codec, profile, scan and entropy coding come from the codec's own settings in the file, and the color from its color tags. Before publishing it we checked it against ffprobe on 15 test files (H.264, HEVC, ProRes, HDR10, interlaced, variable frame rate, rotated phone video, 5.1 and Opus audio): the bitrates, frame rates, resolutions and codec details matched. Screen recorders and live tools often write a fragmented MP4, which spreads that index through the file in small fragments; the checker reads each fragment's own index, and in a recording with more than 1,200 fragments reads 12 runs of them spread through the file and estimates the length and bitrate from the share it read. WebM and MKV files keep their codec, frame size, color and length in a header at the start; the frame rate and video bitrate come from the timestamps and sizes of the frames in the first few megabytes, or the whole file when it is small. We checked the fragmented MP4, WebM and MKV reading against ffprobe on 10 more test files: frame rates, lengths and frame counts matched, and estimated bitrates were within 1%.

When the numbers don't match your export settings

Most exports use a variable bitrate, so the average the checker reports sits above or below the target you set, depending on how much motion and detail the video has. A static talking head or screen recording can average well under its target. If the video bitrate comes out well under YouTube's number, raise the target or switch to a quality-based setting. To see what a given bitrate means in file size, use the video file size calculator, and for how long it will take to send, the upload time calculator. Our guide to YouTube export settings walks through the export dialog itself. Making a vertical video? The YouTube Shorts checker says whether it will land as a Short.

Embed this checker

Teachers, bloggers and course creators can put this video bitrate checker on their own page for free. Paste the code below into your page's HTML. It loads from markstudios.com, so it stays current when we update the numbers.