Measure your upload with the house online
Run a speed test on your streaming computer while the rest of the house is online as usual. A fast download result says nothing about upload, and one quick test can’t show that the connection holds up for a long stream.
How the sum works
The tool adds the platform’s published audio bitrate to the video bitrate, divides by 0.80, then adds the upload the rest of your house uses. Dividing by 0.80 keeps 20% of the upload free, which is what YouTube recommends; multiplying by 1.20 would keep less. Twitch asks for upload equal to the stream’s bitrate plus 30%, so for Twitch the tool multiplies by 1.30 instead. Kick and Facebook publish no headroom figure, so the tool uses YouTube’s 20% for them and the result says so. With two platforms, each stream gets its own platform’s audio and margin, and the two are added; the household upload is counted once.
One upload or one per platform
A restream service such as Restream takes one stream from OBS and sends it on to each platform from its own servers, so your upload carries one stream however many platforms it reaches. The catch is that every platform gets the same settings, so they have to suit the strictest one: Kick, for example, takes no more than 8,000 kbps of video. A multistream plugin in OBS, such as Aitum Multistream, sends each platform its own stream instead: each can have its own settings, and each one takes its own share of your upload. The multistreaming guide sets up either way.
Twitch’s Enhanced Broadcasting, 2K and Dual Format
With Enhanced Broadcasting, Twitch chooses the bitrate itself each time you go live, so the tool uses the upload Twitch lists for each mode instead of the 30% rule: up to 10.5 Mbps for Enhanced Broadcasting, which fits itself to a slower connection down to 1.5 Mbps, and the upload Twitch lists for 2K and Dual Format, which is lower when your account has added server-side transcode support. The figures and how to turn each mode on are on the Twitch settings page.
Choose a bitrate inside the published range
Twitch publishes one figure per output. YouTube prints a recommended figure and a minimum for each codec and output: the tool checks the recommended one, and when your upload is short of it, names the highest output whose minimum fits and the bitrate to set. Facebook gives a range for every output, and Kick one range, 1,000 to 8,000 kbps, for everything up to 1080p at 60 fps. Where the platform gives a range, enter the bitrate you will set in OBS; the tool does not pick an end for you.
Watch the stream, not just the number
A pass here is arithmetic, not a test. An overloaded encoder, Wi-Fi interference, lost packets, a throttled connection or other uploads can still interrupt a stream. Watch your platform’s preview, with movement and sound, to check what viewers get.
Where the platform numbers come from
Every figure comes from the platform’s own help page: Twitch, YouTube Live, Kick and Facebook Live each have a page here with their full published table and the date it was last checked. For Twitch, run a test broadcast in Twitch Inspector before a long stream.
For the complete connection plan, use the streaming setup builder. You can keep older equipment in your plan.
Sources
- YouTube Help: live encoder settings, bitrates and resolutions
- YouTube Help: streaming tips
- Twitch Help: Broadcasting Guidelines
- Twitch Help: Enhanced Broadcasting with Multiple Encodes
- Twitch Help: 2k Streaming on Twitch
- Twitch Help: Dual Format Streaming on Twitch
- Kick Help Center: How to stream on KICK.com
- Meta Business Help Center: Requirements for Facebook Live videos
- Twitch Inspector
- OBS Studio 32.2.2 source: default output settings
- Restream: How to multistream with OBS
- Aitum Multistream: What is Multistream