--- title: "What Is Bandwidth in Streaming? Definition and Examples" description: "Bandwidth is the rate at which data can travel over a connection, and in streaming also the volume of video delivered. See how to estimate what you need." url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/bandwidth" markdown_url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/bandwidth.md" category: "Streaming technology" updated: "2026-10-05" --- # What is bandwidth in streaming? Bandwidth is the maximum rate at which data can be transferred over a connection, measured in megabits per second (Mbps). In streaming the word is also used for the total volume of video delivered to viewers in a month, measured in gigabytes or terabytes. ## Two meanings to keep apart - Rate: how fast data can flow at one moment, in Mbps or Gbps. This is what limits the quality a viewer can receive and what the service must supply at peak - Volume: how much data was delivered over a period, in GB or TB. This is what a CDN bill is based on, and is more precisely called data transfer or egress ## Viewer bandwidth A viewer's connection has to exceed the bitrate of the video with room to spare. Around 5 Mbps is comfortable for 1080p and about 25 Mbps for 4K. When the connection falls short, adaptive streaming drops to a lower quality instead of stalling. ## Service bandwidth at peak The rate a service must deliver at its busiest moment is concurrent viewers multiplied by average bitrate. 2,000 concurrent viewers at 4 Mbps is 8 Gbps. A CDN supplies this capacity, which is why peak concurrency is the figure to check against a plan's limits. ## Monthly volume and cost Volume is viewing hours multiplied by average bitrate. Multiply hours by the bitrate in Mbps and by 0.45 to get gigabytes: 50,000 hours at 3 Mbps is about 67,500 GB, or 67.5 TB. Average bitrate is usually well below your top rendition, because many viewers are on phones and slower connections. Use a measured average if you have one. ## Bandwidth on RentAnOTT RentAnOTT tiers include 1 TB, 5 TB or 20 TB of CDN delivery a month, with additional delivery at $7.50 per TB. The bandwidth cost calculator estimates your monthly volume and cost. [Estimate your delivery cost](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/streaming-bandwidth-cost-calculator). ## Related terms - [Egress cost](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/egress-cost) — Egress cost is the charge for data leaving a cloud provider's or CDN's network, billed per gigabyte transferred. For a streaming service it is the cost of delivering video to viewers, and it is usually the largest variable cost of the service. - [CDN](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/cdn) — A CDN (content delivery network) is a network of servers spread across many locations that stores copies of content and delivers each request from a server near the viewer. For streaming, it is what carries the video segments from the platform to the audience. - [Bitrate](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/bitrate) — Bitrate is the amount of data used to represent one second of video or audio, measured in kilobits or megabits per second (kbps or Mbps). A higher bitrate carries more detail and produces larger files and higher delivery costs. - [Concurrent viewers](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/concurrent-viewers) — Concurrent viewers is the number of people watching a service's video at the same moment. The highest value reached, peak concurrency, determines how much streaming capacity the service needs. - [Peak concurrency](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/peak-concurrency) — Peak concurrency is the highest number of viewers watching a service at the same moment within a period, such as a day, an event or a month. It is the figure that capacity, and many platform plans, are sized against. - [Adaptive bitrate streaming](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/adaptive-bitrate-streaming) — Adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR) is a delivery method in which a video is encoded at several quality levels and the player switches between them during playback, choosing the highest quality the viewer's connection can sustain without stalling. - [Multi-CDN](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/multi-cdn) — Multi-CDN is the practice of delivering video through two or more content delivery networks at once, with a switching layer that sends each viewer, or each request, to whichever network is performing best for them at that moment. - [Watch time](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/watch-time) — Watch time is the total amount of time viewers spend actually playing video on a service, usually reported in hours per month. It is the most direct measure of how much a service is used. ## Further reading - [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing) - [Video bitrate calculator](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/video-bitrate-calculator) - [2K video resolution explained](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/2k-video-resolution) ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the difference between bandwidth and bitrate? Bitrate is how much data the video uses per second. Bandwidth is how much data the connection can carry per second. Playback is smooth when bandwidth comfortably exceeds bitrate. ### How much bandwidth does a viewer need to stream? Roughly 3 Mbps for 720p, 5 Mbps for 1080p and 25 Mbps for 4K, with more if several people share the connection. ### Is bandwidth the same as data usage? Not strictly. Bandwidth is a rate; data usage is a total. Streaming vendors often say bandwidth when they mean the total data delivered in a month. All 163 terms: [Streaming and OTT glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary). ## Book a demo Tell RentAnOTT what you are launching. The team walks through the platform and maps the path to go-live around your catalog, markets and revenue model. Book a demo: https://www.rentanott.com/contact ## More from RentAnOTT - [Home](https://www.rentanott.com/index.md) — What RentAnOTT is, what every plan includes, and how launch works - [Features](https://www.rentanott.com/features.md) — Every core feature and optional add-on - [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing.md) — Platform tiers, apps, add-ons, usage rates and example bills in INR and USD - [Free tools](https://www.rentanott.com/tools.md) — OTT app builder and calculators for streaming revenue, bandwidth, bitrate and pricing - [Insights](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs.md) — All streaming business articles - [Glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary.md) — Definitions of streaming and OTT terms - [Book a demo](https://www.rentanott.com/contact.md) — Talk to RentAnOTT about your launch Full site in one file: https://www.rentanott.com/llms-full.txt