Short answer: one hour of 4K video takes about 45 to 90 GB from a mirrorless camera shooting H.264, 27 to 45 GB in H.265, about 220 GB in ProRes 422, 330 to 500 GB in ProRes 422 HQ and 500 GB to 1.5 TB in RAW. The codec decides the size far more than the resolution does. A 1 TB Mac holds roughly 11 to 22 hours of camera-native 4K but only 2 to 3 hours of ProRes 422 HQ.
Why does the codec matter more than “4K”?
4K is a frame size: 3,840 by 2,160 pixels. It says nothing about how many bits the camera spends on each second of footage. That number is the bitrate, and it is set by the codec and the recording mode you pick in the camera menu.
A mirrorless camera in H.264 might write 150 Mbps. The same camera in ProRes 422 HQ writes about 740 Mbps at 24 fps. Same sensor, same pixels, five times the storage.
The maths is simple. Divide the bitrate in megabits per second by 8 to get megabytes per second. Multiply by 60 for a minute and by 60 again for an hour.
- 150 Mbps ÷ 8 = 18.75 MB per second
- 18.75 × 60 = 1,125 MB per minute, about 1.1 GB
- 1,125 × 60 = 67,500 MB per hour, about 67 GB
4K storage per hour by codec
| Codec and mode | Typical bitrate | Per minute | Per hour | Hours per TB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4K H.265 (mirrorless) | 60–100 Mbps | 0.45–0.75 GB | 27–45 GB | 22–37 |
| 4K H.264 (mirrorless) | 100–200 Mbps | 0.75–1.5 GB | 45–90 GB | 11–22 |
| ProRes 422, 4K | about 490 Mbps | about 3.7 GB | about 220 GB | about 4.5 |
| ProRes 422 HQ, 4K 24 fps | about 740 Mbps | about 5.5 GB | about 330 GB | about 3 |
| ProRes 422 HQ, 4K 60 fps | 1,100 Mbps or more | about 8.3 GB | about 500 GB | about 2 |
| ProRes RAW / camera RAW | 1–3 Gbps or more | 7.5–22 GB | 500 GB–1.5 TB | under 1 to 2 |
“Hours per TB” uses the marketing definition of 1 TB as 1,000 GB. A “1 TB” SSD formats to about 930 GB, so knock 7 percent off in practice.
What fits on a 1 TB Mac?
Not 1 TB of footage. macOS, apps and caches take 100 to 150 GB before the first clip lands, so call it 850 GB free.
At 4K H.264 from a typical mirrorless camera, that is 10 to 19 hours of footage. It sounds like plenty until you count a real project. A two-camera interview records both cameras for the full session, so a 90-minute conversation plus b-roll is 4 hours of footage, or roughly 200 to 350 GB, for one video.
At ProRes 422 HQ the same Mac holds about 2.5 hours. One shoot day fills it.
Why do editors run out of space in a month?
Because footage is only part of the total. Media cache, render previews, proxies, auto-saves and exports add about 30 to 50 percent on top, which we break down in how much storage a Premiere Pro project really takes.
So a creator who shoots 4 hours of 4K H.264 a week is adding roughly 250 GB of footage and another 100 GB of project overhead every week. That is about 1.4 TB a month. A 1 TB Mac is full in three weeks, and the usual response is to buy a 2 TB external SSD for ₹12,000 to ₹18,000, fill it, and buy another.
If you want to plan a year rather than a month, see how many hours of video fit in 1 TB.
Does streaming change the maths?
It changes where the bytes live, not how many there are. A streaming drive shows the full library in Finder at its real size while taking 0 KB on the Mac’s SSD, and fetches only the frames you scrub or play. Camera-native 4K at 100 to 200 Mbps plays live on a 300 Mbps home fibre line. ProRes 422 HQ at 740 Mbps or more does not fit through a home line, so it is served from an office cache or from automatically made proxies.
Where Driveless fits
Driveless is a streaming cloud drive for Mac, launching in India in January 2027. Your footage sits in the cloud at full quality and appears in Finder as a normal drive. Opening a 2.69 GB ProRes 422 HQ file fetched 8 MB in the engine prototype and started playing in under a second. The waitlist is open now. The Solo plan gives 1 TB for ₹999 a month, or ₹699 a month locked for life for founding members, and every plan is on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
How many hours of 4K fit on a 1 TB drive?
About 11 to 22 hours of camera-native 4K H.264, 22 to 37 hours of 4K H.265, roughly 4.5 hours of ProRes 422 and only 2 to 3 hours of ProRes 422 HQ. Subtract about 7 percent for the difference between marketing and formatted capacity.
Is 4K H.265 smaller than H.264?
Yes. H.265 typically needs 30 to 50 percent fewer bits for the same quality, so one hour is about 27 to 45 GB instead of 45 to 90 GB. It is harder for the Mac to decode, which matters on older Intel machines.
Does Driveless store 4K at full quality?
Yes. Files are stored exactly as shot and streamed at original quality. Proxies are made in addition on paid plans, never instead.