How Many Hours of Video Can 2TB Hold?
2 TB holds about 3 d 11 h of consumer 4K at 30 frames per second, about 7 d 10 h of 1080p, and about 5 h 1 min of ProRes 422 HQ at UHD. Two terabytes is the top of the SDXC standard, so this is the largest capacity that still behaves like an ordinary card in an ordinary camera.
Open the full calculator for codecs, audio and safety margin.
Every format, on 2 TB
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 | 7 d 10 h | 186.3 MB | GoPro capacity chart |
| GoPro HERO13 Black 1080p 60 fps, standard bit rate | 37.18 Mbps | 4 d 23 h | 278.9 MB | GoPro capacity chart |
| GoPro HERO13 Black 4K 30 fps, standard bit rate | 53 Mbps | 3 d 11 h | 397.5 MB | GoPro capacity chart |
| GoPro HERO13 Black 4K 30 fps, high bit rate | 103.4 Mbps | 1 d 18 h | 775.8 MB | GoPro capacity chart |
| GoPro HERO13 Black 4K 60 fps, high bit rate | 138.8 Mbps | 1 d 8 h | 1.041 GB | GoPro capacity chart |
| GoPro HERO13 Black 5.3K 60 fps, high bit rate | 138.8 Mbps | 1 d 8 h | 1.041 GB | GoPro capacity chart |
| YouTube 1080p upload target, 30 fps | 8 Mbps | 23 d 3 h | 60 MB | YouTube |
| YouTube 1080p upload target, 60 fps | 12 Mbps | 15 d 10 h | 90 MB | YouTube |
| YouTube 4K upload target, 30 fps, low end of the range | 35 Mbps | 5 d 6 h | 262.5 MB | YouTube |
| YouTube 4K upload target, 30 fps, high end of the range | 45 Mbps | 4 d 2 h | 337.5 MB | YouTube |
| ProRes 422 Proxy, HD 1080 30p | 45 Mbps | 4 d 2 h | 337.5 MB | Apple white paper |
| ProRes 422 HQ, HD 1080 30p | 220 Mbps | 20 h 12 min | 1.65 GB | Apple white paper |
| ProRes 422 Proxy, UHD 4K 30p | 182 Mbps | 1 d 0 h | 1.365 GB | Apple white paper |
| ProRes 422 HQ, UHD 4K 24p | 707 Mbps | 6 h 17 min | 5.303 GB | Apple white paper |
| ProRes 422 HQ, UHD 4K 30p | 884 Mbps | 5 h 1 min | 6.63 GB | Apple white paper |
| ProRes 4444, DCI 4K 24p | 1.131 Gbps | 3 h 55 min | 8.483 GB | Apple white paper |
| Blackmagic RAW 12:1, 6K DCI 24 fps | 477.8 Mbps | 9 h 18 min | 3.583 GB | Blackmagic ratio, derived |
| Blackmagic RAW 5:1, 6K DCI 24 fps | 1.147 Gbps | 3 h 52 min | 8.6 GB | Blackmagic ratio, derived |
| Blackmagic RAW 3:1, 6K DCI 24 fps | 1.911 Gbps | 2 h 19 min | 14.33 GB | Blackmagic ratio, derived |
ProRes on 2 TB
Apple publishes a target data rate for every supported frame size and frame rate in the Apple ProRes white paper. At two terabytes ProRes is measured in hours across the whole table, which is why cards this size end up in cameras that never stop rolling.
| Format | 422 Proxy | 422 LT | 422 | 422 HQ | 4444 | 4444 XQ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HD 1920 x 1080 24p | 5 d 3 h | 2 d 6 h | 1 d 13 h | 1 d 1 h | 16 h 50 min | 11 h 13 min |
| HD 1920 x 1080 30p | 4 d 2 h | 1 d 19 h | 1 d 6 h | 20 h 12 min | 13 h 28 min | 8 h 58 min |
| UHD 3840 x 2160 24p | 1 d 6 h | 13 h 33 min | 9 h 26 min | 6 h 17 min | 4 h 11 min | 2 h 47 min |
| UHD 3840 x 2160 30p | 1 d 0 h | 10 h 50 min | 7 h 32 min | 5 h 1 min | 3 h 21 min | 2 h 14 min |
| DCI 4K 4096 x 2160 24p | 1 d 4 h | 12 h 41 min | 8 h 50 min | 5 h 53 min | 3 h 55 min | 2 h 37 min |
GoPro on 2 TB
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 15.625.
| Mode | High bit rate | Standard bit rate |
|---|---|---|
| 5.3K 60 fps | 1 d 8 h | 2 d 14 h |
| 5.3K 30 fps | 1 d 8 h | 2 d 21 h |
| 5.3K 24 fps | 1 d 8 h | 3 d 3 h |
| 4K 120 fps | 1 d 7 h | 2 d 1 h |
| 4K 60 fps | 1 d 8 h | 2 d 19 h |
| 4K 30 fps | 1 d 18 h | 3 d 11 h |
| 4K 24 fps | 2 d 3 h | 5 d 3 h |
| 2.7K 240 fps | 1 d 7 h | 2 d 4 h |
| 1080p 240 fps | 1 d 8 h | 2 d 10 h |
| 1080p 120 fps | 1 d 17 h | 3 d 7 h |
| 1080p 60 fps | 2 d 10 h | 4 d 23 h |
| 1080p 30 fps | 3 d 22 h | 7 d 10 h |
What 2 TB really is
Two terabytes is the ceiling of the SDXC standard. The SD Association defines SDXC as over 32 GB up to 2 TB, and anything larger belongs to the SDUC standard, which reaches 128 TB. Those boundaries come from the SD Association capacity overview.
Your computer will report this drive as roughly 1.82 TiB, because the operating system divides by 1024 three times and keeps writing GB on the screen. Both numbers describe the same 2,000,000,000,000 bytes. Decimal bytes here as everywhere on this site, matching the label on the card and the units Apple and Blackmagic publish their own rates in.
A 2 TB card is a lot of eggs in one basket. On jobs I care about, two 1 TB cards and a card change at lunch is a better night of sleep than one 2 TB card and no natural break to offload.
What this capacity is good for
Long form raw acquisition, multi day documentary work, or an edit drive.
The division, at the top of the standard
One division, the same one, run at the largest capacity the SD Association defines for SDXC.
2 TB is 2,000,000,000,000 bytes, so 16,000,000,000,000 bits. Blackmagic RAW 3:1 at 6K DCI 24 fps derives to 1.911 Gbps from the ratio Blackmagic publishes, and that gives 2 h 19 min on this card.
Under three hours, on the biggest card the standard allows, at the least compressed setting a Blackmagic camera offers. That single line is the honest answer to anybody who thinks capacity has stopped being a constraint. It has stopped being one for delivery files. For acquisition it never has.
What one hour costs on 2 TB
The other direction, which is the one a producer asks about: what does an hour cost out of the largest card in the standard.
- One hour of consumer 1080p 30, at 24.8 Mbps, is 11.2 GB, which is 0.6 percent of it.
- One hour of consumer 4K 30, at 53 Mbps, is 23.9 GB, which is 1.2 percent of it.
- One hour of a 4K delivery file at the YouTube target of 40 Mbps is 18 GB, which is 0.9 percent of it.
- One hour of Blackmagic RAW 12:1 at 6K DCI 24 fps is 215 GB, which is 11 percent of it.
- One hour of ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 30p is 397.8 GB, which is 20 percent of it.
Even here the heavy end does not disappear. One hour of Blackmagic RAW 3:1 at 6K DCI 24 fps is 860 GB, which is 43 percent of it, so a long documentary day is still a media plan rather than a single card.
The last card in the standard, and the first one I argue with
Two terabytes is where the SDXC standard stops. The SD Association defines SDXC as over 32 GB up to 2 TB and hands everything above it to SDUC, which reaches 128 TB. So this is the largest capacity that behaves like an ordinary card in an ordinary camera, and the largest one this site works out.
It is also the capacity I am least comfortable filling, and the reason is not technical. At 2 h 19 min of Blackmagic RAW 3:1 at 6K DCI 24 fps, or 5 h 1 min of ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 30p, a full card of this size is not a scene. It is days of work in one object with no natural moment to copy it. Two 1 TB cards hold exactly the same footage and give you a card change, which is the only thing that reliably makes an offload happen while there is still daylight.
That is a preference formed on jobs, not a specification, and it is worth saying which is which. The card is not less reliable for being larger. The workflow around it is, because nothing in the day forces you to stop and copy.
Where a card this size genuinely earns its place
Long form and unrepeatable. A documentary interview that must not be interrupted for media. A performance with no stop. A multi camera rig where changing media means stopping everything. In those situations the alternative to one large card is a missed moment, and the argument goes the other way.
It also earns its place off the camera, as an edit drive. 2 TB holds about 5 h 1 min of ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 30p, which is a feature length project with its cache, its renders and its optimised media beside it.
What the day costs at the top end
One hour of Blackmagic RAW 3:1 at 6K DCI 24 fps is 860 GB, which is 43 percent of it. One hour of ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 30p is 398 GB. Multiply either by cameras and by days before you order media, then double the total, because a master with no backup is not a master.
Common questions
How many hours of video can 2TB hold?
It depends on the data rate. At consumer 4K 30 fps, using GoPro published figures, 2 TB holds about 3 d 11 h. At 1080p 30 it holds about 7 d 10 h. At ProRes 422 HQ UHD 30p, which Apple publishes as 884 Mbps, it holds about 5 h 1 min.
How many hours of 4K video can 2TB hold?
At a consumer 4K bitrate of about 53 Mbps, roughly 3 d 11 h. At the higher bitrate setting the same camera cuts that to about 1 d 18 h. Professional codecs are far heavier: ProRes 422 HQ at UHD 30p gives about 5 h 1 min.
How long can you record 4K on 2TB?
The drive holds about 3 d 11 h 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 2TB hold?
At the 24.8 Mbps that GoPro published times imply for 1080p 30, about 7 d 10 h. A finished delivery file is much lighter: at the YouTube 1080p upload target of 8 Mbps, 2 TB holds about 23 d 3 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.
Is 2 TB the largest SD card there is?
It is the largest in the SDXC standard. The SD Association defines SDXC as over 32 GB up to 2 TB, and defines a further standard, SDUC, that runs above 2 TB and up to 128 TB. Whether your camera can use anything larger is a question for the camera maker rather than the card.
Should I use one 2 TB card or two 1 TB cards?
They hold the same footage. Two cards give you a card change, and a card change is what makes an offload happen during the day instead of at midnight. One card is the right answer when stopping is not an option: a long interview, a performance, a multi camera rig where changing media stops everything. Otherwise split it.
How many hours of raw video fit on 2 TB?
Using the compression ratios Blackmagic publishes at 6K DCI 24 fps: about 9 h 18 min at 12:1, about 3 h 52 min at 5:1, and about 2 h 19 min at 3:1. Blackmagic publishes the ratio rather than a rate table, so these come from the ratio and the sensor frame, with the derivation set out on the sources page.