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Video Storage Calculator

NVR/DVR Capacity · Retention · Duty Cycle

When to use: Size the raw NVR/DVR disk capacity from per-camera bitrate, camera count, and retention days. Storage = bitrate × cameras × days × duty cycle. The recording duty cycle models motion-only or schedule-based recording, and a RAID/headroom margin accounts for parity, metadata, and filesystem overhead.

Storage Parameters
Mbps
cams
days
Parity + metadata
%
Recommended Drive Buy
24 TB
Usable capacity (rounded up)
Total Storage (with margin)
23.73
TB for 30-day retention
Results
Per Camera / Day42.19 GB
Per Camera (full retention)1.24 TB
Raw Total19.78 TB
With RAID/Headroom23.73 TB
In GB20,250 GB
Duty CycleContinuous 24/7 (100%)
Notes
GB = Mbps × 86400 × duty / 8 / 1024
RAID 5/6 parity drives are not usable capacity
Use surveillance-rated drives (e.g. WD Purple, Seagate SkyHawk)
Verify duty cycle in commissioning — motion can exceed 40%