How long does Twitch keep VODs?

Twitch keeps VODs for 14 days (affiliates) or 60 days (partners). After that, they're permanently deleted. If you want to archive your streams, you MUST record locally or use a third-party recording service.

Should I record locally or rely on Twitch?

Always record locally. Twitch's VOD quality is limited to your stream bitrate (6-8 Mbps), while local recording can be much higher (20-50 Mbps). Local copies give you editor-quality footage for clips, highlights, and YouTube content.

What is the best storage solution for VODs?

For active archives: a NAS with RAID 1 or 5 (redundancy) using 8-16TB drives. For cold storage: external HDDs or cloud services like Backblaze B2 ($5/TB/month). A hybrid approach keeps recent VODs on NAS and older ones in cloud.

How can I reduce VOD file sizes?

Re-encode old VODs from H.264 to H.265 (HEVC) for 40-50% size reduction with minimal quality loss. Use Handbrake with CRF 23-28 for a good quality/size balance. This is CPU-intensive but saves significant storage long-term.

Do I need to keep all my VODs?

Keep all VODs from the past 6-12 months for content repurposing. Beyond that, evaluation gets personal. Many streamers keep highlight compilations and delete raw VODs older than a year. If storage is cheap, keeping everything enables future compilations.

Is cloud storage reliable for VODs?

Major cloud providers (AWS S3, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud) are highly reliable with 99.99%+ durability. They're excellent for long-term archival. Download speeds can be slow for large files, so keep recent VODs locally for active editing.

VOD Archive Storage Calculator

Calculate annual storage needs for archiving stream VODs. Estimate how much disk or cloud storage you need based on stream hours, quality, and resolution.

Hours per Stream

Streams per Week

Codec

Resolution

Bitrate

Mbps

Storage Type

Retention Period

months

Per Hour

3.52 GB

H264 at 8 Mbps

Per Stream

17.6 GB

5 hour stream

Weekly

88.0 GB

5 streams per week

Monthly

381.0 GB

0.372 TB

Annual

4.47 TB

4,576 GB total

Full Retention

4.46 TB

12 months, 260 streams, 1,300 hrs

Monthly Storage Cost

$7.44

LOCAL at $20/TB/mo

Annual Storage Cost

$89.40

For 4.47 TB of archives

Storage Growth Over Time

1 mo

0.37 TB

3 mo

1.12 TB

6 mo

2.23 TB

12 mo

4.46 TB

Monthly Accumulation Table

Month	Cumulative (GB)	Cumulative (TB)	Storage Cost
1	381.0	0.37	$7.40
2	762.0	0.74	$14.80
3	1,143.0	1.12	$22.40
4	1,524.0	1.49	$29.80
5	1,905.0	1.86	$37.20
6	2,286.0	2.23	$44.60
7	2,667.0	2.60	$52.00
8	3,048.0	2.98	$59.60
9	3,429.0	3.35	$67.00
10	3,810.0	3.72	$74.40
11	4,191.0	4.09	$81.80
12	4,572.0	4.46	$89.20

Codec Comparison at 1080p

Codec	Bitrate (Mbps)	GB/Hour	Annual (TB)
H264	8	3.52	4.47
H265	5	2.20	2.79
AV1	4	1.76	2.23
VP9	6	2.64	3.35

Planning notes, formulas, and examples

About the VOD Archive Storage Calculator

Archiving your stream VODs is essential for content repurposing — clips, highlights, YouTube uploads, and future compilations all come from your archive. But storage adds up fast. A single 4-hour stream at high quality can be 10-20 GB, and over a year of regular streaming, you're looking at multiple terabytes.

This calculator estimates your annual VOD storage requirements based on your streaming schedule and recording quality. It accounts for resolution, bitrate, and frequency to give you a realistic number for planning your storage infrastructure.

Knowing your storage needs helps you decide between local hard drives, NAS systems, and cloud storage services — each with different cost and reliability tradeoffs.

Use the estimate as a planning baseline and adjust it once you have real session data from the game you are playing.

When This Page Helps

Planning storage ahead prevents the panic of running out mid-stream or losing content to expired Twitch VODs. This calculator helps you budget for proper archive infrastructure before you need it.

How to Use the Inputs

Enter your average stream length in hours.
Enter how many times you stream per week.
Enter your recording bitrate in Mbps.
Review your monthly and annual storage requirements.

Formula used

annual_gb = (hours_per_stream × streams_per_week × 52) × (bitrate_mbps × 3600 / 8 / 1024)

Where:
  hours_per_stream = average stream duration
  streams_per_week = weekly stream frequency
  52 = weeks per year
  bitrate_mbps = recording bitrate in megabits/sec
  3600 = seconds per hour
  8 = bits to bytes conversion
  1024 = MB to GB conversion

Example Calculation

Result: 3.66 TB/year

Streaming 4 hours, 5 days a week at 8 Mbps recording: 4 × 5 × 52 = 1,040 hours/year. At 8 Mbps: 1,040 × (8 × 3600 / 8 / 1024) = 1,040 × 3.52 GB/hr = 3,657 GB ≈ 3.66 TB. You'd need at least a 4TB drive, with a recommended 8TB for headroom.

Tips & Best Practices

Record locally at high bitrate for the best archive quality, even if you stream at lower.
Consider a NAS with RAID for reliable long-term VOD storage.
Compress old VODs to H.265 to save 40-50% space with minimal quality loss.
Twitch deletes VODs after 14-60 days — always keep local copies.
Label VODs by date and game for easy searching later.
Cloud storage (Backblaze B2, Wasabi) is cheap for cold archives.

Storage Planning Strategy

Plan your storage in tiers: fast SSD for current recordings and active editing, HDD/NAS for recent archives (past 6 months), and cloud for long-term cold storage. This tiered approach balances cost, speed, and reliability.

Cost Analysis

Local storage (HDD): ~$15-20/TB upfront. Cloud storage: $5-6/TB/month ($60-72/TB/year). For 4TB of annual VODs, local costs about $60-80 one-time vs. $240-288/year for cloud. Local is cheaper long-term but lacks off-site redundancy.

Content Repurposing from VODs

Your VOD archive is a content goldmine. Create YouTube highlights, TikTok clips, compilation videos, and "best of" content from archived streams. Organized archives with proper labeling make content repurposing efficient and sustainable.

Sources & Methodology

Last updated: February 10, 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Twitch keeps VODs for 14 days (affiliates) or 60 days (partners). After that, they're permanently deleted. If you want to archive your streams, you MUST record locally or use a third-party recording service.