Maximizing Efficiency: Optimizing 4K Video Compression for Smaller File Sizes

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What Is the Size of 4K Video on iPhone per Min/Hr and How to Downsize 4K Video

4K video recording hasn’t been the exclusiveness of professional 4K camcorders since the day that iPhone 6s and iPhone SE support 4K video recording. What’s the 4K file size?

By Candice Liu ｜Last updated on July 31, 2023

Dozens of users are still bothered by the large-sized 4K video file size (4 times the pixels of 1080p) and they feel an urgent need to know the detailed file size of 1 minute or 1 hour of recording 4K ultra HD at 30FPS/60FPS on iPhone. Thus, they can easily handle the 4K video duration when recording based on the storage capability of his/her device. To address your needs, the below part will clearly show you how much space it’ll take up based on the 4K video length, video codec (H264/H265) and frame rate you adopt.

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How Much Space Does iPhone 4K Video Consume at 24/30/60FPS

1 Minute of an iPhone 4K Video

1 minute of 4K at 24FPS will takep up 270MB for H264 and 135MB for HEVC/H265.
1 minute of 4K at 30FPS will take up about 350MB for H264 and 175MB for HEVC.
1 minute of 4K at 60FPS will take up approximately 400MB for HEVC.

1. to save iPhone space, generally Apple won’t allow you to record 4K 60FPS video on iPhone unless you turn on and use HEVC codec for 4K recording.
2. Once you upgrade your iOS 10 to iOS 11 on iPhone 7/7 Plus, the 4K video recording will be automatically running at HEVC codec to save space up to 50%.

1 Hour of an iPhone 4K Video

1 Hour of 4K at 24FPS takes up around 15.8GB for H264 and 7.9GB for HEVC/H265.
1 Hour of 4K at 30FPS consumes about 20.5GB for H264 and 10.3GB for HEVC.
1 Hour of 4K at 60FPS hogs up space approximately 23.4GB for HEVC.

Now, based on your iPhone space capability, you know how long of the 4K video your iPhone can store without eating up all your iPhone space. If you’re not sure about the frame rate your iPhone 4K recording supports, check the following part with specific iPhone model, 4K video frame rate and maximum 4K video length.

Suggested 4K video length at 24FPS:

iPhone (64GB): about 8 hours in HEVC.
iPhone (256GB): about 32 hours in HEVC.

Suggested 4K video length at 30FPS:

iPhone (16GB-128GB): about 30 mins in H264 codec for 16GB version; 1 hour for 32GB; 2 hours for 64GB; 5 hours for 128GB.
Note: iPhone 6s/6s Plus only supports 4K video recording in H264 codec, HEVC unsupported.
iPhone (32GB-256GB): about 2 hours in HEVC for 32GB version; 10 hours for 128GB; 20-22 hours for 256GB.
iPhone (64GB-256GB): about 4 hours in HEVC for 64GB; 20-22 hours for 256GB.

Suggested 4K video length at 60FPS:

iPhone: 1.5 hours in HEVC for 64GB; 7-8 hours for 256GB.

If you are recording videos with higher bit rates or using professional codecs like Apple’s ProRes, the file sizes can be significantly larger.

4K Video File Size at Different Bit Rates

Below are some approximate file size estimates for 4K videos at different bit rates. The file size of 4K videos can vary based on several factors, including the length of the video, the compression codec used, and the bit rate settings. Generally, 4K videos have larger file sizes compared to lower resolutions due to their higher pixel count and overall image quality.

4K at 24 FPS, using H.264 codec:

Low bit rate (e.g., 20 Mbps): Approximately 90 MB per minute.
Medium bit rate (e.g., 50 Mbps): Approximately 225 MB per minute.
High bit rate (e.g., 100 Mbps): Approximately 450 MB per minute.

4K at 30 FPS, using H.264 codec:

Low bit rate (e.g., 20 Mbps): Approximately 110 MB per minute.
Medium bit rate (e.g., 50 Mbps): Approximately 275 MB per minute.
High bit rate (e.g., 100 Mbps): Approximately 550 MB per minute.

4K at 60 FPS, using H.264 codec:

Low bit rate (e.g., 20 Mbps): Approximately 220 MB per minute.
Medium bit rate (e.g., 50 Mbps): Approximately 550 MB per minute.
High bit rate (e.g., 100 Mbps): Approximately 1.1 GB per minute.

4K Video Is Really Space-Hogging. I Need to Compress It

Compared with 1080p or 720p, 4K Ultra HD video is really space-hogging, which can instantly eat up your iPhone free space as you can see from the above list. If your iPhone has enough space like 256GB, then you can save about 20-hour 4K video at 30FPS. What if your iPhone only has 32GB or 64GB space in total? You’d better to compress 4K video to 1080p or reduce 4K video file size if you don’t wanna take forever to upload 4K video to YouTube or directly delete large-sized 4K video to free up space. And to compress 4K video file size, there are several ways to reach this goal. No matter which way to go, the primary condition is to find a solid 4K video processing software. The world’s No.1 fast 4K video converter - MacX Video Converter Pro is the very one you need.

Built-in with 370+ video/audio codecs, this 4K video processing software enables you to convert and process 4K Ultra HD video from H264 to HEVC codec to reduce 4K video size with 50% compression ratio. Thus, you can upload 4K video to YouTube in HEVC 2X faster than before. Of course, it also supports you to decode and encode 4K video from HEVC to H264, MPEG-4 AVC, MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, etc. for playback on more devices, players and platforms.

Compress 4K Ultra HD video to 1080p Full HD, alongside with 4K 60fps to 4K 30fps change, to reduce 4K video size so as to save 4K video on your iPhone (16/32/64GB) with around 4 times smaller space consumption. Of course, the whole 4K compression is lossy in quality. But don’t worry. MacX constantly optimizes its High Quality Engine, Auto Copy mode and video processing kernel to produce highest possible quality, up to 90% - 98% quality reserved.

As the world’s unique 4K video converter with Intel/Nvidia/AMD GPU hardware acceleration tech supported, MacX can provide you 5-8X real time faster speed to accomplish 4K video converting, 4K video compressing and 4K video editing (trim/crop) tasks, up to 250-320 FPS.

Download for Mac Download for PC

The downloads above are for Windows and Mac only. If you are a mobile user, please click here .

How to Reduce Large-sized iPhone 4K Video?

Step 1: Launch this 4K Video Converter

Free download this fastest 4K Ultra HD video processing tool on Mac or Windows . Then open and run it on your computer.

Step 2: Import iPhone 4K Video

Tap “Videos” button to load the iPhone 4K video files. Or just drag and drop 4K files into this No.1 fast 4K Ultra HD video converter.
Note: you need to transfer 4K video from iPhone to Mac or Windows computer first. Use iPhoto, Photos, Image Capture or iPhone transfer tool to make it happen.

Step 3: Choose HEVC or H264 as Output Codec

Select the output video format on the pop-up window. You can choose MP4 video (HEVC) or 4K MP4 (H264) from “Mac General Video” profile. You’re suggested to choose “MP4 HEVC” as output format if you wanna save 4K video on your iPhone with smaller space occupied. Of course, it’s also a nice choice to choose 4K MP4 (H264), for it has better compatibility than HEVC to be uploadable to YouTube/FB/Vimeo, playable with 4K video player /4K TV and other mobile devices.

Reduce 4K Video File Size:

1. Tap settings icon to enter the parameter settings window, where you can compress 4K 2016p to 1080p resolution and change 4K 60fps to 30fps or 30fps to 60fps at your willing.

2. Find and click the scissor-shaped icon “Edit” and then you’ll be re-directed to the video editing zone, where you’re able to use “trim” feature to shorten 4K video length and utilize “crop” feature to remove 4K video image border to further shrink 4K video size.

Improve 4K video processing speed:

The 4K Ultra HD video processing is a compute-intensive task for the ordinary Ultra HD video converter, for the common tools rely on software decoding and encoding to deal with 4K video processing . Using MacX is a different story. Armed with the advanced Intel QSV/Nvidia/AMD CPU & GPU hardware encoding techs, MacX can make full use of your computer high configurations to hardware decode and encode 4K 30/60fps video at 5-8X faster speed. You can see the hardware encoder will be auto ticked if your computer supports them. Then, leave the rest to this software and your hardware to process 4K at world’s No.1 fast speed, up to 250-320FPS.

Step 4: Convert and Process 4K Now

Hit “RUN” button and it will begin to edit, convert and compress 4K Ultra HD video at GPU hardware accelerated speed, along with mutli-core CPU (up to 8) and hyper-threading tech. The output 4K video will automatically open after the conversion is over. Just a few minutes later, you can get your desired 4K video file and then fast upload 4K to YouTube, play 4K on TV, E-mail 4K to friends or just save 4K on your iPhone.

FAQs about 4K Video File Size

How big is a 1hour 4K video?

The file size of a 1-hour 4K video can vary depending on the compression settings and video codec used. Typically, at standard bit rates, a 1-hour 4K video can be expected to range from approximately 45 GB to 110 GB. This estimate is based on using the H.264 or HEVC (H.265) codecs with bit rates between 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps.

However, if a more efficient codec like HEVC is utilized, the file size might be on the lower end of the range due to better compression. On the other hand, if higher bit rates or less efficient codecs are used, the file size may be closer to the higher end.

How many GB is 1 minute of 4K video?

The file size of 1 minute of 4K video can vary based on several factors, including the compression settings, codec used, and bit rate. Here are approximate file size estimates for 1 minute of 4K video at different bit rates using the H.264 codec:

Low bit rate (e.g., 20 Mbps): Approximately 90 MB to 110 MB
Medium bit rate (e.g., 50 Mbps): Approximately 225 MB to 275 MB
High bit rate (e.g., 100 Mbps): Approximately 450 MB to 550 MB

If a more efficient codec like HEVC (H.265) is used, the file size might be smaller compared to the estimates provided above.

How many GB is 20 minute of 4K video?

Using the H.264 codec as an example, here are approximate file size estimates for 20 minutes of 4K video at different bit rates:

Low bit rate (e.g., 20 Mbps): Approximately 1.8 GB to 2.2 GB
Medium bit rate (e.g., 50 Mbps): Approximately 4.5 GB to 5.5 GB
High bit rate (e.g., 100 Mbps): Approximately 9 GB to 11 GB

How many GB is a 2 hour 4K movie?

Below are rough estimates, and the actual file size can be more or less depending on the specific video content and compression settings used.

Low bit rate (e.g., 20 Mbps): Approximately 180 GB to 220 GB
Medium bit rate (e.g., 50 Mbps): Approximately 450 GB to 550 GB
High bit rate (e.g., 100 Mbps): Approximately 900 GB to 1100 GB (1.1 TB)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Candice Liu

Candice’s particularly skilled in writing and sharing video-related contents. Her guides cover from deep-seated video/audio parameters, to media entertainment on different platforms. She also enjoys shooting and processing videos by herself for a more reliable basis of informative info with her articles, which are never at the expense of eliminating an entertaining read.

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Maximizing Efficiency: Optimizing 4K Video Compression for Smaller File Sizes