Data & backup planner
How much space does ProRes 422 take?
ProRes 422 stores a constant amount per frame (2.46 MB at UHD), so the rate scales exactly with pixels and frame rate. UHD at 25 fps: 221 GB per hour.
- Footage per day
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- Footage, whole shoot
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- Incl. all copies
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- Drives needed
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- Offload per day
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- Left after wrap
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- Per recording hour
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- Per day
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- Whole shoot
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- Data rate
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- 4 GB file holds
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Picture = the plan on the Footage tab.
- One file
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- All versions
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- Upload at full speed
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- Upload at 80 %
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Same runtime in every format. Platform figures are their recommendations, not limits.
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ProRes 422: GB per hour
Rates as in Apple’s ProRes white paper (April 2022). Real files land slightly below: ProRes only spends bits where the picture needs them, so a static interview comes in under the target, a handheld night street close to it.
| Resolution | 24 fps | 25 fps | 30 fps | 50 fps | 60 fps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HD 1920 × 1080 | 53.1 GB | 55.4 GB | 66.4 GB | 111 GB | 133 GB |
| UHD 3840 × 2160 | 213 GB | 221 GB | 266 GB | 443 GB | 531 GB |
| 4K DCI 4096 × 2160 | 227 GB | 236 GB | 283 GB | 472 GB | 567 GB |
How long a card lasts
Minutes of recording per card (UHD 25 fps). The last column is the time a DIT needs to copy that card once to an NVMe SSD at a sustained 850 MB/s, plus a verification pass.
| Card | Recording time | Offload + verify |
|---|---|---|
| 256 GB | 1 h 9 min | 10 min |
| 512 GB | 2 h 19 min | 20 min |
| 1 TB | 4 h 31 min | 39 min |
| 2 TB | 9 h 2 min | 1 h 18 min |
ProRes 422 next to its siblings
The same hour of footage in every variant of the family (UHD, 25 fps). The step to the next quality level is usually the cheaper decision than it looks: drives cost less than a reshoot, but every step also lengthens the offload.
| Codec | GB per hour | vs. ProRes 422 | Offload of 1 h at 850 MB/s |
|---|---|---|---|
| ProRes 422 Proxy | 68.0 GB | −69 % | 1 min |
| ProRes 422 LT | 154 GB | −30 % | 3 min |
| ProRes 422 | 221 GB | — | 4 min |
| ProRes 422 HQ | 332 GB | +50 % | 7 min |
| ProRes 4444 | 498 GB | +125 % | 10 min |
| ProRes 4444 XQ | 747 GB | +237 % | 15 min |
Cameras that record ProRes 422
In our camera list: ARRI Alexa 35, ARRI Alexa Mini LF, ARRI Alexa Mini, ARRI Amira, Sony Venice 2 (8.6K), Panasonic Lumix GH6. The tool above has each of them as a preset, with the codecs and frame rates the body actually offers.
Frequently asked
How much storage does one hour of ProRes 422 need?
In UHD at 25 fps: 221 GB. At 50 fps exactly double.
Why does my card show less space than its label?
Cards are labelled in decimal units (1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes); some operating systems count in binary units and show about 931 GB for a 1 TB card. The numbers on this page are decimal, like the label.