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Solutions · Live streaming

A VPS for a 24/7 YouTube live stream

Looping your own videos to YouTube around the clock takes almost no processor: FFmpeg copies the file, it does not encode it. What a 24/7 stream needs is transfer, a stream that restarts itself, and files YouTube accepts. GL2-4 with unmetered traffic starts at $11.90 a month.

Deploy GL2-4Compare the three servers

24/7 stream planner

YouTube bitrates
Resolution

Server location

3
Sent every second
42.4Mbit/s
Every 30 days
13.7TB

The server for this

U1-2in Istanbul, Türkiye

$8.90/mo

1 vCPU · 2 GB · 25 GB · unmetered, 1 Gbit/s port

4% of its port · room for 7 streams like these

Order U1-2 · $8.90/mo

Rather not set it up yourself? We do it for $65, once

Servers for 24/7 streaming

Pick by how many streams you run.

Unmetered traffic on all three, so a month of streaming never runs into a quota. Today's prices, per month, and every renewal is the same price.

  1. StarterGL2-4

    Carries up to

    14streams at 1080p

    or 8 in 4K

    One channel and a handful of streams.

    • 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 40 GB NVMe
    • Unmetered traffic · 500 Mbit/s port
    • BeauharnoisHillsboro (OR)Vint Hill (VA)

    $11.90/mo

    Order GL2-4
  2. RecommendedGL4-8

    Carries up to

    28streams at 1080p

    or 16 in 4K

    Several channels, with room to add more later.

    • 4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 75 GB NVMe
    • Unmetered traffic · 1 Gbit/s port
    • BeauharnoisErithHillsboro (OR)

    $20.90/mo

    Order GL4-8
  3. Most powerGL8-24

    Carries up to

    56streams at 1080p

    or 49 in 4K

    Many channels, 4K, or converting videos while the streams run.

    • 8 vCPU · 24 GB RAM · 200 GB NVMe
    • Unmetered traffic · 3 Gbit/s port
    • Erith

    $54.90/mo

    Order GL8-24

A big video library

BD-12: 200 GB of disk and 32 TB a month, enough for 6 streams at 1080p. $17.90/mo.

Order BD-12

Optional · $65 once

We set it all up for you: streams that restart themselves, RTMPS, your videos made YouTube-ready, and a test stream together.

What the setup includes

How we count: YouTube's recommended bitrate plus 128 kbit/s of audio per stream, 70% of the port at most, and a tenth of a vCPU per stream in copy mode, which is generous. On a plan with a monthly allowance, the allowance usually runs out first. Ports are the slowest city's.

14 cities

Near you, not only near YouTube.

The city decides how fast your videos upload to the server and how quickly it answers you. Each city below has a server priced for 24/7 streaming: the cheapest one that carries 3 streams at 1080p, and how far the biggest one there goes.

Europe

Americas

  • BeauharnoisCanada

    GL2-4

    $11.90/mo

    14 streams at 1080p · unmetered · 500 Mbit/s port

    Up to 42 on GL6-12 here, $29.90/mo

    Order GL2-4Plan other numbers

  • Hillsboro (OR)United States

    GL2-4

    $11.90/mo

    14 streams at 1080p · unmetered · 500 Mbit/s port

    Up to 28 on GL4-8 here, $20.90/mo

    Order GL2-4Plan other numbers

  • Vint Hill (VA)United States

    GL2-4

    $11.90/mo

    14 streams at 1080p · unmetered · 500 Mbit/s port

    The biggest streaming size here

    Order GL2-4Plan other numbers

  • SeattleUnited States

    BD-8

    $15.90/mo

    6 streams at 1080p · 32 TB a month · 200 Mbit/s port

    The biggest streaming size here

    Order BD-8Plan other numbers

  • New YorkUnited States

    BD-8

    $16.90/mo

    6 streams at 1080p · 32 TB a month · 200 Mbit/s port

    The biggest streaming size here

    Order BD-8Plan other numbers

Asia-Pacific

Middle East

  • IstanbulTürkiye

    U1-2

    $8.90/mo

    7 streams at 1080p · unmetered · 1 Gbit/s port

    Up to 49 on U12-48-300 here, $104.90/mo

    Order U1-2Plan other numbers

We sell servers in 59 more cities, Dubai and Mumbai among them. Their plans come with a monthly transfer allowance and no published port speed, so we do not size streams on them: one 1080p stream uses about 4.6 TB a month. Pick any city in the order form, where every plan shows its allowance.

What it needs

Software from the docs, sizes labelled by source

The software and the security posture come from the project's own documentation. Where the project publishes no hardware figure, the sizes say whose they are.

From YouTube's help pages and FFmpeg's documentation

  • FFmpeg reading the file at its own speed and looping it forever, copying instead of re-encoding: ffmpeg -re -stream_loop -1 -i video.mp4 -c copy -f flv "$URL" where URL is rtmps://a.rtmps.youtube.com/live2/ followed by your stream key.
  • Video YouTube accepts: H.264 with a keyframe every 2 seconds (never more than 4) and AAC audio. Copy mode cannot change keyframes, so a file that breaks this rule must be converted once first.
  • RTMPS (port 443) is YouTube's recommended, encrypted ingest. YouTube allows 10 active streams per channel and 3 per stream key.
  • Streams longer than 12 hours may not be archived by YouTube, so a 24/7 stream is live only; keep your own copy of the videos.

Sizes (ours; copy mode is light on CPU)

Sizing by workload
WorkloadvCPURAM
Up to 14 streams at 1080pCopy mode uses a few percent of a core per stream; we count a tenth. On a metered plan, transfer runs out first.24 GB
Up to 28 streams, several channelsUnmetered on a 1 Gbit/s port, 75 GB for the files.48 GB
Converting videos on the server tooRe-encoding to fix keyframes uses every core while it runs; streaming does not.612 GB

The plans that fit

3 machines, priced live

Ordered by how many streams fit. Prices are today's, per month, read from the catalogue.

  • GL2-4$11.90/mo

    2 vCPU · 4 GB · 40 GB disk · Unmetered

    Unmetered: up to 14 streams at 1080p, no transfer quota. 2 vCPU, 4 GB, 40 GB, unmetered traffic on a 500 Mbit/s port. The honest pick for most channels.

    Deploy
  • BD-8$12.90/mo

    4 vCPU · 8 GB · 100 GB disk · 32 TB

    32 TB a month and 100 GB: a few streams and a library. 4 vCPU, 8 GB, 100 GB for your videos and 32 TB of transfer, six 1080p streams.

    Deploy
  • BD-12$17.90/mo

    6 vCPU · 12 GB · 200 GB disk · 32 TB

    200 GB: a large library, converting on the server. 6 vCPU and 12 GB to convert videos without stopping the streams, 200 GB for the files.

    Deploy

A city's port speed and transfer are shown on each plan; the order form shows them for the city you pick.

The install

Five steps to a stream that restarts itself

Ubuntu, as root. Replace STREAM-KEY with the key from YouTube Studio, and keep it out of anything you share.

  1. Install FFmpeg. apt update && apt install -y ffmpeg
  2. Check the file. ffprobe video.mp4 must show h264 and aac. If it does not, or the keyframes are far apart, convert it once: ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -g 60 -keyint_min 60 -sc_threshold 0 -c:a aac -b:a 128k ready.mp4
  3. Put the key in a file only root can read. echo 'STREAM_KEY=your-key' > /root/stream1.env && chmod 600 /root/stream1.env
  4. Create the service /etc/systemd/system/stream1.service with Restart=always · RestartSec=10 · StartLimitIntervalSec=0 · EnvironmentFile=/root/stream1.env and the FFmpeg line from above as ExecStart=.
  5. Start it and watch it. systemctl enable --now stream1, then journalctl -u stream1 -f. YouTube Studio shows the stream as live within a minute.

Honestly

What we would actually buy

Copy mode makes the processor almost irrelevant. Buy for transfer and for disk.

For one or two channels

GL2-4 · $11.90/mo

GL2-4 at $11.90: 2 vCPU and 4 GB are more than copy mode needs, and its traffic is unmetered, so a month of 1080p streaming does not run into a quota. Choose a bigger disk only when your video library needs it.

Deploy GL2-4GL4-8 for several channels

Transfer

How much transfer a 24/7 stream uses.

A stream that never stops sends its bitrate every second of the month. At YouTube's recommended bitrates, one stream uses this much in 30 days:

Monthly transfer of one 24/7 YouTube stream by resolution
StreamYouTube recommendsPer 30 days
720p, 30 fps8 Mbit/s2.6 TB
1080p, 30 fps14 Mbit/s4.5 TB
1080p, 60 fps17 Mbit/s5.5 TB
1440p, 30 fps21 Mbit/s6.8 TB
4K, 30 fps42 Mbit/s13.6 TB

So the transfer allowance decides the plan, not the processor. A plan with 32 TB a month carries six 1080p streams at YouTube's recommended bitrate; an unmetered plan has no monthly quota at all, only its port speed. Your own videos may use less than the recommendation: check the bitrate of your files.

Bitrates from YouTube's live encoder settings. Arithmetic: Mbit/s x 2,592,000 seconds / 8.

Optional

Rather have us set it up? $65, once.

Buy the server above as usual. If you would rather not do the steps yourself, add our setup: a fixed price, paid once, done within 24 hours of your approval.

What the $65 setup includes

  • A stream service for each of your channels that restarts by itself after any drop, and starts again after a reboot.
  • A launcher that checks the stream key and the video file before FFmpeg starts, and writes a clear line to the log when one is wrong.
  • Streaming over RTMPS on port 443, YouTube's recommended encrypted ingest.
  • Your videos converted once to the YouTube-ready format (H.264, AAC, a keyframe every 2 seconds), so copy mode streams them with almost no CPU.
  • Logs kept on disk, a daily backup of the stream settings, one command that shows every stream's status, and a test stream together with you.

We send the plan before we touch anything, and nothing is changed until you approve it. Your stream keys stay yours: you paste them in yourself.

Ask for the $65 setupBuy the server first

Questions

What people ask before they buy one.

Is a 24/7 looped live stream allowed on YouTube?
YouTube allows streaming pre-recorded video through an encoder. What it enforces is its community guidelines and monetization policies, which apply to the content, not to the server; check YouTube's policies for what your channel streams. We do not decide that, and we do not restrict it.
Why does my stream show "No data" or stop?
Most often: FFmpeg exited and nothing restarted it (set Restart=always), the stream key is wrong or has stray characters, the file's keyframes are more than 4 seconds apart, or the YouTube event was ended in Studio. A dropped connection affects one stream at a time; a server or network problem stops all of them at once, which is how you tell the two apart.
How many streams can one VPS run?
In copy mode, many: FFmpeg only repackages the file. At 14 Mbit/s for 1080p, each stream sends about 4.6 TB a month with its audio, so a 32 TB plan carries six. On an unmetered plan we count a tenth of a vCPU per stream, which is generous, and at most 70% of the port: 2 vCPU carry 14 streams, 4 vCPU carry 28. YouTube itself allows 10 active streams per channel and 3 per stream key.
RTMP or RTMPS?
RTMPS, on port 443. YouTube recommends it because it is encrypted, and port 443 passes through networks that block 1935. It costs no extra processor in copy mode.
Do you set it up for me?
If you want: our setup is $65 once. It includes auto-restarting stream services, a launcher that checks the key and the file, RTMPS, a one-time conversion of your videos, logs and backups. We send the plan first and change nothing until you approve it.
Can I stream to Twitch or Facebook too?
Yes. The same FFmpeg line works with their RTMP or RTMPS ingest address and key. Each extra destination adds its bitrate to your monthly transfer.

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