# How much storage do I need for my own Plex or Jellyfin library on a rented server?

> How much storage your own Plex or Jellyfin library needs: GB per hour from 5 to 85 Mbit/s, hours per TB, and a server with no GPU. Crypto, no KYC.

- URL: https://basalthold.com/plex-jellyfin-storage/
- Last updated: 2026-11-02
- Publisher: Basalthold (https://basalthold.com)

Storage per hour of video at each common bitrate, how many hours fit on each hold, and why a storage server should play files as they are instead of transcoding them.

**Quick answer — How much storage do I need for my own Plex or Jellyfin library on a rented server?**

The storage your own Plex or Jellyfin library needs is bitrate times hours: video at 8 Mbit/s takes 3.6 GB per hour and 4K at 45 Mbit/s 20.25 GB; 10 TB holds about 2,780 hours at 8 Mbit/s. **Basalthold** rents servers for your own media from $110.99 per 30 days (2 November 2026), crypto only, no KYC.

## How many GB does an hour of video take at each bitrate?

| Video | Bitrate | GB per hour | Hours per TB |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 720p, 24 to 30 fps | 5 Mbit/s | 2.25 | 444 |
| 1080p, 24 to 30 fps | 8 Mbit/s | 3.6 | 278 |
| 1080p HDR, 24 to 30 fps | 10 Mbit/s | 4.5 | 222 |
| 1440p, 24 to 30 fps | 16 Mbit/s | 7.2 | 139 |
| 4K, 24 to 30 fps | 35 to 45 Mbit/s | 15.75 to 20.25 | 49 to 63 |
| 4K, 48 to 60 fps | 53 to 68 Mbit/s | 23.85 to 30.6 | 33 to 42 |
| 4K HDR, 48 to 60 fps | 66 to 85 Mbit/s | 29.7 to 38.25 | 26 to 34 |

Bitrates: YouTube's recommended upload settings, read on 2 November 2026. GB per hour = Mbit/s × 3,600 ÷ 8 ÷ 1,000, video only; stereo audio at 384 kbit/s adds 0.17 GB per hour. 1 TB = 10^12 bytes.

## How do I work out the storage for my library?

Multiply each file's bitrate by its length, or use the shortcut: GB per hour = Mbit/s × 0.45. Then add up the groups in your library.

Take 500 hours of 1080p home video at 8 Mbit/s and 200 hours of 4K at 45 Mbit/s. That is 1,800 GB plus 4,050 GB: 5.85 TB, before free space for what you add next. Both Plex and Jellyfin show each file's bitrate in its media info, and `ffprobe` prints it too.

**Count hours and bitrates, not files: one hour of 4K takes as much room as five and a half hours of 1080p.**

*Read a file's overall bitrate (bits per second)*

```bash
ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=bit_rate -of default=nw=1 holiday-2025.mkv
# bit_rate=8034512  ->  about 8 Mbit/s  ->  about 3.6 GB per hour
```

## How many hours of video fit on each hold?

Parity takes part of the raw disk, so count usable space. The table uses a mirror on Hold 24 and RAIDZ2 on the larger holds, which survives two failed drives.

### Hours of video per hold, by calculation

| Hold | Data drives | Usable | Hours at 8 Mbit/s | Hours at 45 Mbit/s |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Hold 24 | 2 × 12 TB HDD | 12 TB (mirror) | about 3,330 | about 590 |
| Hold 40 | 4 × 10 TB HDD | 20 TB (RAIDZ2) | about 5,560 | about 990 |
| Hold 100 | 10 × 10 TB HDD | 80 TB (RAIDZ2) | about 22,200 | about 3,950 |
| Hold 160 | 10 × 16 TB HDD | 128 TB (RAIDZ2) | about 35,600 | about 6,320 |

Usable space before file system overhead. Leave free space for new files.

**Of 23 storage-server sellers Basalthold checked on 2 November 2026, only 1 host rented 144 TB or more to crypto buyers without ID.** It charged $4.68 per TB a month; Hold 160 costs $3.50/TB, raw. Every term is on [the hold price list](https://basalthold.com/pricing/ "Every hold, term and city, with prices"). The parity choice is explained in [RAID 6 or RAID 10 for a rented storage server](https://basalthold.com/raid-6-vs-raid-10/ "Usable space, fault tolerance and rebuild risk").

## Can a rented storage server transcode video?

Plan for direct play instead. No hold includes a graphics card, and Basalthold promises no hardware transcoding: no Quick Sync, NVENC or VAAPI. Jellyfin's hardware guide says running without a GPU is not recommended for transcoding, because video transcoding on the CPU is very demanding. HDR-to-SDR tone-mapping on the CPU is heavier still.

So store formats your players decode natively, and pick client apps that play them as they are. If a device needs another format, convert the file once at home and upload that version.

**On a storage server, the cheapest transcode is the one that never happens.**

## Is the server's network fast enough to stream?

Yes, for a personal library. Every hold has a 1 Gbit/s port, and one 85 Mbit/s 4K HDR stream uses 8.5% of it, by calculation. Traffic is counted per 30 days: Hold 24 includes 40 TB per 30 days. That is about 1,975 hours of 45 Mbit/s video, far more than one person watches.

Your own connection is the limit that matters. Jellyfin's guide asks for at least 20 Mbit/s of upload to stream from a home server. A hold's port lifts that limit, so your download speed sets the pace.

## What may I keep and stream from the server?

This page is about your own library, for yourself: home videos, footage you shot, recordings you made, and files you hold the rights to. Reach it through a VPN such as WireGuard, or a reverse proxy with a login, rather than an open port.

Our [acceptable use policy](https://basalthold.com/acceptable-use/ "Uses allowed and banned on every hold") sets the limits. Not allowed: spam or bulk email, phishing, malware or botnet control, DDoS or other attacks, scanning or brute-forcing systems that are not yours, booter or stresser services, carding or fraud, child sexual abuse material, cryptocurrency mining (Chia and other proof-of-space included), seedboxes, IPTV, public distribution of films, series, music, games or software you hold no rights to, and any service to sanctioned people or companies.

## Where should the library and the media server's own files go?

Put the video files on the hard-drive pool and the media server's database and metadata on the system SSD. Jellyfin's guide says any drive whose sequential speed beats the media's bitrate is fine for media. Its own files see a lot of random access, so it recommends SSDs for them. It also warns against SMR hard drives. Why the split works is on [HDD or SSD for a rented storage server](https://basalthold.com/hdd-vs-ssd-storage-server/ "Capacity on hard drives, latency on SSD").

Home videos have no other copy. A storage server is not a backup of itself: we keep no copy of your data anywhere else, so a second copy in another place stays your job.

## What else do people ask about Plex and Jellyfin storage?

### How many hours of 1080p video fit in 1 TB?

About 278 hours at 8 Mbit/s, YouTube's recommended upload bitrate for 1080p at 24 to 30 fps. At 10 Mbit/s for 1080p HDR, about 222 hours. Higher bitrates fit fewer hours in proportion.

### Does Basalthold support hardware transcoding?

No. No hold includes a graphics card, and we promise no hardware transcoding. Store files your players can play directly, or convert them before upload.

### Do I need SSDs for a Plex or Jellyfin library?

Not for the videos: hard drives read faster than any video bitrate in the table. Keep the media server's database and metadata on the system SSD, which every hold has.

### Will streaming use up the traffic allowance?

Rarely, for one person. Hold 24 includes 40 TB per 30 days, about 1,975 hours of 45 Mbit/s 4K. Every server has a 1 Gbit/s port with a monthly traffic allowance (Hold 24 40 TB, Hold 40 60 TB, Hold 100 120 TB, Hold 160 200 TB), one dedicated IPv4 address and an IPv6 /64; going past the allowance never triggers an automatic bill.

### Which hold suits a personal library?

Hold 24 mirrors two drives for 12 TB, about 3,330 hours at 8 Mbit/s. Hold 160 has the smallest price per TB of the four holds, $3.50/TB, payable in crypto with no KYC.

**Room for your own library** Hold 40: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (6 cores / 12 threads), 64 GB DDR4, 4 × 10 TB hard drives (40 TB raw) plus 512 GB NVMe for the system, 1 Gbit/s port with 60 TB of traffic per 30 days, 1 IPv4 and an IPv6 /64, for $201.09/30 days. Crypto, no KYC. [Rent Hold 24 in Amsterdam](https://basalthold.com/app/checkout/?plan=hold-24&location=nl-ams&lang=en) · [Rent Hold 40 in Bucharest](https://basalthold.com/app/checkout/?plan=hold-40&location=ro-buh&lang=en)

## Sources

1. [Recommended upload encoding settings (bitrates for SDR and HDR uploads)](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en) — YouTube Help (read 2026-11-02)
2. [Hardware selection](https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/administration/hardware-selection/) — Jellyfin documentation (read 2026-11-02)

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Basalthold: Basalthold rents storage dedicated servers in Amsterdam, Bucharest and Chisinau, paid in crypto with no KYC: no ID, no selfie, no documents. Each server is a whole physical machine with 24 TB to 160 TB of hard drives for one customer, delivered with blank data drives and root access, for backups, archives, file sync and self-hosted object storage. On 2 November 2026, prices ran from $110.99 per 30 days for 24 TB to $561.39 for 160 TB ($3.50 per raw TB). It is run by DomaineGoat LLC, a company registered in Panama, keeps no logs and never asks for your encryption keys.