Surveillance Recording Retention Calculator · Storage planning

Recording retention calculator

Estimate how many days of footage your NVR can keep given camera count, storage volume, resolution, and recording schedule.

Recording parameters

Choose which stream to record. Only the selected stream counts toward storage.

Bitrate mode
Variable — averages lower on static scenes
Recording hours / day: 24 h
Record from
Mainstream
High-quality recording stream
RECORDING
Frame rate: 15 fps
Substream
Lower-res stream for live view / mobile
Frame rate: 10 fps
Adds ~96 kbps per camera

Estimated retention

Estimated retention
8 cameras · 8 TB · H265 · VBR
3.9 months
119.5 days · 2,868 hours
Mainstream (Recorded)0.77 Mbps · 8.37 GB/day
Substream (Not Recorded)0.19 Mbps
Per camera total0.77 Mbps · 8.37 GB/day
All cameras / day66.9 GB
Usable storage8,000 GB
Days vs. cameras
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Calibrated (Jun 2026) against measured on-disk recordings from 24 deployed cameras across 5 stores. Estimates are intentionally a touch conservative — they lean toward over-estimating storage (and under-estimating retention), so you're unlikely to run out of disk sooner than predicted. Real-world bitrate varies with scene motion and encoder tuning; treat the result as a planning figure, not a guarantee.

Bitrate model: bits-per-pixel × FPS × codec factor (H.264, H.264+, H.265, H.265+). Estimates assume CBR-like steady state; actual usage varies with scene complexity and encoder tuning.

Spacture AI turns existing store cameras into a real-time loss prevention network. Purpose-built for retail.

© 2026 Spacture AI. All rights reserved.

Spacture AI turns existing store cameras into a real-time loss prevention network. Purpose-built for retail.

© 2026 Spacture AI. All rights reserved.

Spacture AI turns existing store cameras into a real-time loss prevention network. Purpose-built for retail.

© 2026 Spacture AI. All rights reserved.