ABR Ladder — Video Bitrates (kbps)
Edit bitrate values to model your encoding ladder. Rows adjust based on source resolution. Sizes update in real time.
| Tier |
Resolution |
AVC (H.264)
kbps |
HEVC (H.265)
kbps |
AV1
kbps |
AVC Size |
HEVC Size |
AV1 Size |
| TOTAL (all renditions) |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
AVC (H.264)
—
total output per file
baseline
HEVC (H.265)
—
total output per file
—
AV1
—
total output per file
—
MediaConvert Pricing Estimate
Estimated monthly cost based on MediaConvert on-demand pricing. Professional tier required for HEVC/AV1.
| Metric |
AVC (Basic Tier) |
HEVC (Professional) |
AV1 (Professional) |
| Output minutes / file | — | — | — |
| Normalized minutes / file | — | — | — |
| Monthly normalized minutes | — | — | — |
| Rate (per normalized min) | — | — | — |
| Monthly Cost | — | — | — |
| Cost per file | — | — | — |
| Cost per minute of source | — | — | — |
HEVC Monthly
—
Professional Tier
AV1 Monthly
—
Professional Tier
Pricing assumptions:
- AVC: Basic Tier — single-pass HQ (Balanced), charged per normalized output minute
- HEVC & AV1: Professional Tier — multi-pass (Quality Optimized)
- Rates: Basic $0.0075/norm-min (first 100K), $0.0053 (100K–1M), $0.0038 (1M+)
- Rates: Professional $0.0150/norm-min (first 100K), $0.0105 (100K–1M), $0.0075 (1M+)
- Multipliers: SD ≤30fps 1x (Basic AVC) / 3.5x (Pro HEVC/AV1 multipass), HD 2x / 7x, UHD 4x / 14x
- Audio-only output: 0.39x normalized minutes (Professional tier)
- Does NOT include S3 storage costs, data transfer, or optional add-ons (Dolby, HDR10+, etc.)
CloudFront Delivery Cost Estimate
Estimated monthly CloudFront data transfer cost for delivering the top bitrate rendition to all viewers. Based on CloudFront US/Europe pricing.
| Metric |
AVC |
HEVC |
AV1 |
| Top rendition bitrate | — | — | — |
| Data per view (top rendition) | — | — | — |
| Monthly data transfer | — | — | — |
| Monthly CloudFront Cost | — | — | — |
| Cost per viewer | — | — | — |
AVC CDN/mo
—
CloudFront (top rendition)
HEVC CDN/mo
—
CloudFront (top rendition)
AV1 CDN/mo
—
CloudFront (top rendition)
CloudFront assumptions:
- Uses the highest visible bitrate rendition for each codec (worst-case CDN cost scenario)
- US/Europe pricing tiers: 10TB=$0.085/GB, 40TB=$0.080/GB, 100TB=$0.060/GB, 350TB=$0.040/GB, 524TB=$0.030/GB, 4PB+=$0.025/GB
- Does NOT include CloudFront request fees ($0.0075–$0.01 per 10K requests) or origin transfer
- Real-world ABR delivery uses a mix of renditions — actual cost is typically 30-60% of top-rendition estimate
Total Monthly Cost (MediaConvert + CloudFront)
Combined encoding and delivery cost estimate. Also shows the cost for a single file playback (one viewer watching one file).
| Metric |
AVC |
HEVC |
AV1 |
| MediaConvert (monthly) | — | — | — |
| CloudFront (monthly) | — | — | — |
| Total Monthly Cost | — | — | — |
| Encoding cost per file | — | — | — |
| CDN cost per single view | — | — | — |
Cost per file playback
(encoding amortized + 1 CDN view) | — | — | — |
AVC Total/mo
—
MediaConvert + CloudFront
HEVC Total/mo
—
MediaConvert + CloudFront
AV1 Total/mo
—
MediaConvert + CloudFront
AVC per playback
—
encoding + 1 CDN view
HEVC per playback
—
encoding + 1 CDN view
AV1 per playback
—
encoding + 1 CDN view
How "cost per file playback" works:
- Encoding cost per file = monthly MediaConvert cost ÷ files per month (one-time cost amortized across all viewers)
- CDN cost per view = cost to deliver the top rendition to one viewer (based on duration × watch %)
- Cost per playback = (encoding cost per file ÷ viewers per file) + CDN cost per view
- This shows the marginal cost for each individual view of the content
How estimates are calculated: File size = (video bitrate + audio bitrate) × duration ÷ 8.
HEVC bitrates default to ~50% of AVC for equivalent quality (per AWS and industry benchmarks).
AV1 bitrates default to ~35-40% of AVC. Actual sizes vary based on content complexity, encoding settings (CBR vs VBR), and GOP structure.
Edit any bitrate value to model your specific ladder.