How Many Hours of Video Can 256GB Hold?
256 GB holds about 10 h 44 min of consumer 4K at 30 frames per second, about 22 h 54 min of 1080p, and about 38 min 37 s of ProRes 422 HQ at UHD. Enough that the card stops being the thing you worry about, and the offload starts being it.
Open the full calculator for codecs, audio and safety margin.
Every format, on 256 GB
Each line is a published data rate or a documented derivation, never an estimate invented to fill a row. The source is in the last column, and it links to the document it came from: the Apple ProRes white paper, the GoPro HERO13 Black capacity chart, YouTube recommended upload encoding settings and the Blackmagic RAW data rate calculator. The full trail is on the sources page.
| Format | Data rate | Recording time | Per minute | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GoPro HERO13 Black 1080p 30 fps, standard bit rate | 24.84 Mbps | 22 h 54 min | 186.3 MB | GoPro capacity chart |
| GoPro HERO13 Black 1080p 60 fps, standard bit rate | 37.18 Mbps | 15 h 18 min | 278.9 MB | GoPro capacity chart |
| GoPro HERO13 Black 4K 30 fps, standard bit rate | 53 Mbps | 10 h 44 min | 397.5 MB | GoPro capacity chart |
| GoPro HERO13 Black 4K 30 fps, high bit rate | 103.4 Mbps | 5 h 30 min | 775.8 MB | GoPro capacity chart |
| GoPro HERO13 Black 4K 60 fps, high bit rate | 138.8 Mbps | 4 h 6 min | 1.041 GB | GoPro capacity chart |
| GoPro HERO13 Black 5.3K 60 fps, high bit rate | 138.8 Mbps | 4 h 6 min | 1.041 GB | GoPro capacity chart |
| YouTube 1080p upload target, 30 fps | 8 Mbps | 2 d 23 h | 60 MB | YouTube |
| YouTube 1080p upload target, 60 fps | 12 Mbps | 1 d 23 h | 90 MB | YouTube |
| YouTube 4K upload target, 30 fps, low end of the range | 35 Mbps | 16 h 15 min | 262.5 MB | YouTube |
| YouTube 4K upload target, 30 fps, high end of the range | 45 Mbps | 12 h 38 min | 337.5 MB | YouTube |
| ProRes 422 Proxy, HD 1080 30p | 45 Mbps | 12 h 38 min | 337.5 MB | Apple white paper |
| ProRes 422 HQ, HD 1080 30p | 220 Mbps | 2 h 35 min | 1.65 GB | Apple white paper |
| ProRes 422 Proxy, UHD 4K 30p | 182 Mbps | 3 h 7 min | 1.365 GB | Apple white paper |
| ProRes 422 HQ, UHD 4K 24p | 707 Mbps | 48 min 17 s | 5.303 GB | Apple white paper |
| ProRes 422 HQ, UHD 4K 30p | 884 Mbps | 38 min 37 s | 6.63 GB | Apple white paper |
| ProRes 4444, DCI 4K 24p | 1.131 Gbps | 30 min 11 s | 8.483 GB | Apple white paper |
| Blackmagic RAW 12:1, 6K DCI 24 fps | 477.8 Mbps | 1 h 11 min | 3.583 GB | Blackmagic ratio, derived |
| Blackmagic RAW 5:1, 6K DCI 24 fps | 1.147 Gbps | 29 min 46 s | 8.6 GB | Blackmagic ratio, derived |
| Blackmagic RAW 3:1, 6K DCI 24 fps | 1.911 Gbps | 17 min 52 s | 14.33 GB | Blackmagic ratio, derived |
ProRes on 256 GB
Apple publishes a target data rate for every supported frame size and frame rate in the Apple ProRes white paper. This is roughly the capacity where a ProRes day becomes possible on one card, so the table below is the one to check against your shooting order.
| Format | 422 Proxy | 422 LT | 422 | 422 HQ | 4444 | 4444 XQ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HD 1920 x 1080 24p | 15 h 48 min | 6 h 56 min | 4 h 51 min | 3 h 13 min | 2 h 9 min | 1 h 26 min |
| HD 1920 x 1080 30p | 12 h 38 min | 5 h 34 min | 3 h 52 min | 2 h 35 min | 1 h 43 min | 1 h 8 min |
| UHD 3840 x 2160 24p | 3 h 55 min | 1 h 44 min | 1 h 12 min | 48 min 17 s | 32 min 10 s | 21 min 27 s |
| UHD 3840 x 2160 30p | 3 h 7 min | 1 h 23 min | 57 min 57 s | 38 min 37 s | 25 min 44 s | 17 min 10 s |
| DCI 4K 4096 x 2160 24p | 3 h 40 min | 1 h 37 min | 1 h 7 min | 45 min 16 s | 30 min 11 s | 20 min 7 s |
GoPro on 256 GB
GoPro publishes recording times for the HERO13 Black on a 128 GB card in its GoPro HERO13 Black capacity chart, and states that you can scale them to your own card. These are their figures scaled by 2.
| Mode | High bit rate | Standard bit rate |
|---|---|---|
| 5.3K 60 fps | 4 h 6 min | 8 h 0 min |
| 5.3K 30 fps | 4 h 8 min | 8 h 52 min |
| 5.3K 24 fps | 4 h 8 min | 9 h 42 min |
| 4K 120 fps | 4 h 4 min | 6 h 22 min |
| 4K 60 fps | 4 h 6 min | 8 h 42 min |
| 4K 30 fps | 5 h 30 min | 10 h 44 min |
| 4K 24 fps | 6 h 34 min | 15 h 46 min |
| 2.7K 240 fps | 4 h 4 min | 6 h 46 min |
| 1080p 240 fps | 4 h 6 min | 7 h 26 min |
| 1080p 120 fps | 5 h 20 min | 10 h 12 min |
| 1080p 60 fps | 7 h 26 min | 15 h 18 min |
| 1080p 30 fps | 12 h 2 min | 22 h 54 min |
What 256 GB really is
A 256 GB card is SDXC, formatted exFAT. Those boundaries come from the SD Association capacity overview.
Your computer will report this card as roughly 238.4 GiB, because the operating system divides by 1024 three times and keeps writing GB on the screen. Both numbers describe the same 256,000,000,000 bytes. Decimal bytes throughout on this page, matching the label on the card and the units Apple and Blackmagic publish their own data rates in.
At this size the card usually stops being the constraint and the card reader and the backup drive become the slow part of the day. Copying 256 GB over a tired USB cable takes longer than most people plan for.
What this capacity is good for
A day of 4K on a mirrorless camera without thinking about it, or roughly forty minutes of ProRes 422 HQ at UHD.
The division, done twice
The same division answers both halves of a card this size: how much fits, and how long it takes to get it off again.
Recording first. 256 GB is 256,000,000,000 bytes, so 2,048,000,000,000 bits. A camera on the high bit rate setting at 4K 30, which GoPro published times put at 103.4 Mbps, gives 5 h 30 min.
Copying second, and this is the sum nobody does. Drop the eight, because a transfer rate is quoted in bytes rather than bits: 256,000,000,000 bytes at a sustained 150 MB per second is 28 min 27 s. Recording the card took 5 h 30 min. Emptying it is not free, and it happens when everybody wants to go home.
What one hour costs on 256 GB
Read the tables backwards for a moment. On a real job you plan hours, and the useful number is what an hour costs you out of this card.
- One hour of consumer 1080p 30, at 24.8 Mbps, is 11.2 GB, which is 4.4 percent of it.
- One hour of consumer 4K 30, at 53 Mbps, is 23.9 GB, which is 9.3 percent of it.
- One hour of a 4K delivery file at the YouTube target of 40 Mbps is 18 GB, which is 7 percent of it.
- One hour of Blackmagic RAW 12:1 at 6K DCI 24 fps is 215 GB, which is 84 percent of it.
- One hour of ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 30p is 397.8 GB, which is 1.6 times the whole card.
Now add the part that is not in any table. Every one of those hours has to be copied off at the end of the day, and the copy runs at the speed of your reader rather than the speed of the camera.
The card stops being the problem and the copy becomes it
Somewhere around this capacity the question quietly changes. You stop asking whether the day fits on the card and start asking how long it takes to get the day off the card, and almost nobody budgets for the second one.
The arithmetic is the same division as everything else on this site, run against a transfer rate instead of a recording rate. A full 256 GB at a sustained 100 MB per second takes 42 min 40 s. At 200 MB per second it takes 21 min 20 s. At 50, which is what a modest reader on a shared bus really delivers, it takes 1 h 25 min. Those are not specifications of any product, they are what the arithmetic says for whatever your own reader sustains, and the only way to know yours is to time one copy and write it down.
Then double it, because a copy you have not verified is not a backup. Copying to two destinations, or copying once and checksumming, costs roughly the transfer time again. A card this size can turn into an hour of somebody standing next to a laptop, and that hour is either in the schedule or it is at the end of the day when everyone wants to leave.
What that means for how you buy cards
The reason to carry two of these rather than one larger card is not capacity. It is that a card you have finished with can be copied while the camera keeps rolling on the other one. Offloading in parallel with the shoot is the only version of this that does not add time to the day.
On a mirrorless camera at consumer 4K this card holds about 10 h 44 min, which is more than most single days produce. On a camera writing ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 30p it holds about 38 min 37 s. Those two jobs need completely different card counts and completely different offload plans, from the same piece of plastic.
Common questions
How many hours of video can 256GB hold?
It depends on the data rate. At consumer 4K 30 fps, using GoPro published figures, 256 GB holds about 10 h 44 min. At 1080p 30 it holds about 22 h 54 min. At ProRes 422 HQ UHD 30p, which Apple publishes as 884 Mbps, it holds about 38 min 37 s.
How many hours of 4K video can 256GB hold?
At a consumer 4K bitrate of about 53 Mbps, roughly 10 h 44 min. At the higher bitrate setting the same camera cuts that to about 5 h 30 min. Professional codecs are far heavier: ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 30p gives about 38 min 37 s.
How long can you record 4K on 256GB?
The card holds about 10 h 44 min of consumer 4K at 30 fps, but holding it and recording it in one unbroken take are different things. Heat, battery life and per clip limits stop most cameras long before the media is full. Plan around the shooting day rather than around one long take.
How many hours of 1080p video can 256GB hold?
At the 24.8 Mbps that GoPro published times imply for 1080p 30, about 22 h 54 min. A finished delivery file is much lighter: at the YouTube 1080p upload target of 8 Mbps, 256 GB holds about 2 d 23 h. Camera footage and delivery files are different animals and the gap between them is the whole reason a single answer to this question does not exist.
How long does it take to copy a full 256 GB card?
It depends entirely on what your reader and your drive sustain, not on the card size alone. The division is the same one used everywhere on this site: 256,000,000,000 bytes at a sustained 100 MB per second is 42 min 40 s, at 200 MB per second 21 min 20 s, and at 50 MB per second 1 h 25 min. Time one real copy, write the number on the card wallet, and plan from that.
Is 256 GB enough for a wedding or a full event day?
At consumer 4K 30, about 10 h 44 min, which covers most single camera days with room left. At 1080p it is about 22 h 54 min. The answer changes completely on a camera recording an intermediate codec: ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 30p gives about 38 min 37 s, so that job needs several cards and a plan for changing them.
Should I buy one 256 GB card or two 128 GB cards?
Two smaller cards let you copy one while the other is still in the camera, which is the only way offloading does not add time to the shooting day. One larger card means fewer changes and less to keep track of. Capacity is identical either way, so decide on how the day runs rather than on the number.