How much CCTV storage do you need?
2026-05-10 · 4 min read
Storage depends on three things: how many cameras you have, at what resolution and compression they record, and how many days of footage you want to keep.
As a rough guide, one 2MP camera recording continuously with H.265 uses roughly 15–25 GB per day. A 4MP camera roughly doubles that. Multiply by your channel count and retention days.
Motion-based recording can reduce this significantly, but only in quiet areas. In a busy shop, motion recording saves far less than expected.
Always use a surveillance-rated hard disk. Desktop drives are not designed for the continuous write workload of a recorder and tend to fail early.