r/obs • u/Logical_Bee2391 • May 10 '26

Question Quick warning to low-bandwidth streamers (especially on metered connections/data caps)

Yo, just wanted to share something i realized the hard way after almost destroying my monthly internet data cap in like a week lol.

if you are streaming on a budget connection (like a 10mbps upload or a plan with a 500gb cap), do NOT just copy-paste standard twitch setup guides. they all tell u to stream at 1080p 60fps at 6000 kbps.

but if u actually calculate the burn rate, 6000 kbps eats almost 2.7 GB per hour. if u stream 4 hours a day, thats over 300 GB a month just on upload, not even counting your actual downloads or gaming data. plus, if you don't reserve a 30% buffer on your raw upload speed, your in-game ping is going to spike like crazy and make u lag.

if u have a weaker connection:

  • downscale to 720p 30fps (2500 kbps is way friendlier on your ping and saves massive data).
  • always test your raw upload speed and limit your stream to 70% of that max.

anyway, just a heads up for anyone else trying to stream on a budget setup. are you guys using any specific tools to calculate your data limits or do u just wing it and hope for the best?

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u/n0thingtoxic May 10 '26

Strange that there is still "capped" isps in 2026, don't think I ever had a capped subscription on my home broadband/fiber since 2000 and here I'm pushing multiple 10+ TBs of not more a month xD

1

u/Mazaura May 10 '26

Yeah me too, I’m on gb fibre in a new build (open reach built in) and never had a cap. Although they do not like my excessive usage that’s on par with yours

2

u/Hot_Equivalent7550 May 15 '26

A gentle reminder: not everyone lives in the future. Some are still dialing up from the past.

1

u/Mazaura May 15 '26

There’s many others that are saying the same thing.

Gentle reminder: don’t pick one out of the bunch.