Dash Cam Bitrate

How we research

Bitrate is the amount of video data a dash cam records each second, measured in megabits per second (Mbps). A higher bitrate usually means more detail and bigger files.

Last updated: 19 October 2026

What it means

Nexar, a dash cam maker, argues that bitrate matters more than resolution. It suggests 12 to 15 Mbps as a minimum for clean 1080p footage, with compression artefacts visible below about 10 Mbps, 25 to 30 Mbps for 1440p and 50 to 60 Mbps for 4K [1]. It also says H.265 reaches equivalent quality at roughly half the bitrate of H.264 [1]. These are one maker’s suggestions, not measured figures for any model.

Why it matters when you buy

Bitrate decides how fast the card fills, and so how many hours a card holds before footage is overwritten. One Mbps for one hour is 450 megabytes, or 0.45 GB.

A worked example

A camera records at 20 Mbps. That is 20 × 0.45 = 9 GB an hour. A 64 GB card then holds about 64 ÷ 9, or 7.1 hours, before it starts overwriting the oldest footage.

Illustrative scenario: figures are examples, not quotes, valuations or market prices.

Sources

  1. Dash Cam Bitrate vs. Resolution: Why Higher Numbers Aren’t Always Better, Nexar (a dash cam maker). Updated 2 April 2026, getnexar.com. Checked 19 October 2026.