Free CCTV planning tool · Updated 15 August 2026
CCTV Storage &
Retention Calculator.
Estimate the recording capacity for a Jaipur home, shop, office, school or industrial property. Start with camera count and average bitrate; the result shows raw video storage and a practical capacity target with headroom.
Planning estimate only. Verify the final capacity using the selected cameras, codec, recorder, scene conditions, RAID policy and required retention period.
Why bitrate matters: “4K camera” is not a storage figure. Compression, frame rate, scene complexity and bitrate control can make two cameras at the same resolution record very different amounts of data. Use an observed or specified average bitrate whenever possible.
Calculate CCTV storage
8 cameras × 4 Mbps × 24 hours × 30 days, including 20% headroom.
- Raw video storage
- 10.37 TB
- Video written per day
- 345.60 GB
- Aggregate camera bitrate
- 32.0 Mbps
- Next common capacity
- 14 TB
This is a capacity target, not a drive-count recommendation. NVR bays, supported disk sizes, RAID/redundancy and usable formatted capacity must be checked separately.
The formula and what it leaves out
Included
Camera count, average stream bitrate, daily recording time, retention days and selected capacity headroom.
Verify separately
RAID loss, file-system overhead, secondary streams, audio, analytics metadata, recorder limits, failed-disk tolerance and export space.
Scene conditions matter
Rain, foliage, traffic, low-light noise and busy entrances can raise variable bitrate. A quiet indoor corridor may use less.
Choosing a realistic bitrate
| Input | What to use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Existing system | Observed average bitrate from the camera or NVR | It reflects the actual scene and configuration better than a generic resolution label. |
| Final equipment selected | Manufacturer calculator or configured bitrate range | Codec, frame rate and image-quality settings are now known. |
| Early design only | Use the profile preset, then test lower and higher values | A range exposes the storage risk before recorder and drive selection. |
Choose retention from the incident window
Start with the question: how long could pass before an incident is discovered and footage is requested? A frequently occupied home may discover an event quickly; a warehouse, second home or audit-sensitive site may not. Document the chosen period, authorised viewers, export procedure and deletion policy instead of keeping footage indefinitely by default.
Common storage questions
Does H.265 always use half the storage of H.264?
No fixed percentage applies to every scene and configuration. Treat codec presets as planning values and verify the selected camera’s actual bitrate.
Does remote viewing use the same amount of internet bandwidth?
No. Local NVR recording stays on the local network. Remote viewing uses upload bandwidth while a stream is being viewed or exported, often using a lower-bitrate secondary stream.
Should I buy exactly the calculated terabytes?
No. Round up, allow headroom and check supported surveillance-grade drives, NVR bay limits, redundancy choice and usable capacity after formatting.
Need a camera and retention plan?