Call recording storage calculator
Enter your team size, talk time and recording format to see how many gigabytes your call recordings will use.
2,200 recorded hours a month. A 5-minute call is about 4.8 MB. Decimal units: 1 GB = 1,000 MB.
How the size is worked out
A recording's size is its bit rate multiplied by its length. At 64 kbps, one hour of one audio channel is 28.8 MB. A stereo recording, where the caller and the agent are on separate channels, doubles that to 57.6 MB an hour. The calculator multiplies by your recorded hours each month, then by how many months you keep recordings.
Mono or stereo
Many call center recorders keep each side of the call on its own channel. It doubles the file size, but it usually makes it easier to separate the two voices for transcription and quality scoring. If storage is tight, mono at a lower bit rate is the cheapest option.
Retention
Storage grows until your retention period is reached, then stays level as old recordings are deleted. Set the period from your compliance and training needs rather than from habit. See our call recording guide and the storage explainer.
Limits
It is an estimate. Silence suppression, container headers and real compression ratios change the size you see. The calculator uses decimal units (1 GB = 1,000 MB).
FAQ
How big is one hour of call recording?
At 64 kbps mono it is about 28.8 MB, and stereo doubles that to about 57.6 MB. A compressed 32 kbps recording is about 14.4 MB an hour in mono.
Does my phone provider include recording storage?
Often the limit is retention rather than size, for example one month, 90 days or unlimited, depending on the plan. Check how long recordings are kept and whether you can export them.
Do I need to record every call?
Not necessarily. Recording a share of calls, or only certain queues, cuts storage in proportion. Your compliance rules decide what you must record.