Twitch bitrate guide

Best OBS bitrate for Twitch: choose stability first.

The best Twitch bitrate is the highest bitrate your upload can hold without crowding the connection. For most streamers, a steady 720p60 or 936p60 stream looks better than an unstable 1080p stream that keeps dropping frames.

Calculate your bitrate Check upload speed needs

Start with your upload speed, not the resolution you want

Run a wired speed test, take the upload result, then leave headroom. A good default is to use only about 70% of measured upload for stream video plus audio. That margin gives OBS room for game traffic, voice chat, alerts, normal network overhead, and short dips.

For example, an 8 Mbps upload gives about 5600 Kbps of usable stream budget with 30% headroom. After 160 Kbps audio, that leaves about 5440 Kbps for video. That is a much better fit for 720p60 or 936p60 than for aggressive 1080p60.

Practical Twitch bitrate presets

  • Low motion or talk streams: 720p30 at 2500 to 3500 Kbps is often enough and gives weaker connections room to breathe.
  • Most gameplay streams: 720p60 at 3500 to 5000 Kbps is a strong first test when your upload is under 10 Mbps.
  • Sharper gameplay without chasing 1080p: 936p60 at 4500 to 6000 Kbps is a common compromise for fast games.
  • 1080p60: only try it after 720p60 or 936p60 is stable. If the image gets blocky during motion, 936p60 may look cleaner at the same bitrate.

Platform guidance and account capabilities can change. Treat these as conservative OBS starting points, then check your current Twitch dashboard guidance and run a private test before relying on a setting for a real stream.

CBR, audio bitrate, and keyframes

  • Rate control: use CBR for live streaming unless your platform setup says otherwise.
  • Audio: 160 Kbps is a practical default. If your upload is tight, 128 Kbps is still workable for many streams.
  • Keyframe interval: 2 seconds is a safe live-streaming default for Twitch-style RTMP workflows.
  • Encoder: use hardware encoding when available, then tune bitrate after the stream is stable.

What to change when Twitch drops frames

If OBS reports dropped frames, reduce video bitrate first. Try lowering by 500 to 1000 Kbps and test again. If OBS reports skipped frames or rendering lag, the bottleneck is usually encoder or GPU load instead of upload speed.