Video bitrate and storage chart
Minutes per card at every bitrate, and the write speed each one actually demands.
Researched from published specifications and verified owner reviews · updated 2026
The short answer
Divide bitrate in megabits per second by eight to get the sustained write in megabytes per second, so 200 Mbps needs 25 MB/s. A 256 GB card holds roughly 5 hours 40 minutes at 100 Mbps, 3 hours 45 minutes at 150 Mbps and 1 hour 50 minutes at 300 Mbps. Look for the V-class mark rather than the headline read speed: V30 guarantees 30 MB/s sustained write and covers most consumer drone modes.
Two numbers decide whether a memory card works in a drone, and neither of them is the one printed largest on the front of the package. The first is capacity against bitrate, which sets how many minutes fit. The second is sustained write speed against bitrate, which sets whether the card can keep up at all. A card that fails the second test stops recording partway through a clip regardless of how much space is left.
SanDisk
SanDisk Extreme PRO 256 GB microSDXC (U3, V30)
U3, V30, 256 GB
V30 is the class mark that guarantees a sustained 30 megabytes per second write, which is the figure that decides whether a high-bitrate clip survives. The headline read speed on a card package tells you how fast footage copies to a computer afterwards and has essentially nothing to do with whether the recording completes.
Prices move constantly. We earn a commission if you buy through these links, at no extra cost to you.
Minutes of recording per card
| Bitrate | Write demand | 64 GB | 128 GB | 256 GB | 512 GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 Mbps | 7.5 MB/s | 2 h 22 m | 4 h 44 m | 9 h 29 m | 18 h 58 m |
| 100 Mbps | 12.5 MB/s | 1 h 25 m | 2 h 50 m | 5 h 41 m | 11 h 22 m |
| 120 Mbps | 15 MB/s | 1 h 11 m | 2 h 22 m | 4 h 44 m | 9 h 29 m |
| 150 Mbps | 18.8 MB/s | 57 m | 1 h 54 m | 3 h 47 m | 7 h 35 m |
| 200 Mbps | 25 MB/s | 43 m | 1 h 25 m | 2 h 51 m | 5 h 41 m |
| 300 Mbps | 37.5 MB/s | 28 m | 57 m | 1 h 54 m | 3 h 47 m |
| 500 Mbps | 62.5 MB/s | 17 m | 34 m | 1 h 8 m | 2 h 16 m |
Those figures assume the whole card is available and use a decimal gigabyte, which is how cards are sold. Formatted capacity is slightly lower, so treat the numbers as approximate and leave headroom. A specific case can be worked on the memory card capacity calculator.
The practical conclusion is that capacity is rarely the constraint. A flight battery delivers well under half an hour of airborne time, so even four packs of continuous recording at 150 Mbps fits on a 128 GB card. Buy capacity for mapping missions and for long sessions where a swap is expensive, not because a bigger number feels safer.
Speed class, decoded
| Mark | Guarantees | Covers bitrates up to | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class 10 / U1 | 10 MB/s sustained | About 80 Mbps | Marginal. Avoid for drone video. |
| U3 / V30 | 30 MB/s sustained | About 240 Mbps | The correct default for consumer drones. |
| V60 | 60 MB/s sustained | About 480 Mbps | High-bitrate and log recording modes. |
| V90 | 90 MB/s sustained | About 720 Mbps | Flagship aircraft at maximum quality. |
The conversion that makes this table usable is dividing megabits by eight. Bitrates are quoted in bits and card speeds in bytes, and the factor of eight between them is the reason people either over-buy cards dramatically or, worse, under-buy them and lose clips.
Why cards fail mid-clip
A memory card's headline speed is usually a peak read figure, and its peak write figure is achieved into a small internal cache. Once that cache fills during sustained recording, the card falls back to its native write rate, which on a cheap card can be a fraction of the advertised number. If that native rate is below what the bitrate demands, the buffer in the aircraft fills and recording stops.
That is why the V-class mark exists. It is a guarantee of a sustained minimum rather than a peak, and it is the only figure on the package that describes what happens two minutes into a clip. A cheap high-capacity card without a V rating is the most common cause of a lost shot that had nothing to do with flying.
Counterfeit cards are a real and persistent problem in this category, typically presenting as a card that reports a large capacity and fails on writes past a much smaller real size. Buy from a seller you trust, and test a new card by filling it before it matters. The product comparison is on best microSD cards for drones.
Bitrate against picture quality
Higher bitrate reduces compression artefacts, and those artefacts are most visible in complex moving detail: foliage in wind, moving water, rain, and fine texture during a fast pan. If your footage shows blocky patches in trees during motion, bitrate is the cause and increasing it is the fix.
Beyond the point where artefacts stop being visible, extra bitrate buys storage consumption and nothing else. Sensor size, exposure discipline and shutter speed change the image far more than the difference between 150 and 200 Mbps ever will. If picture quality is the goal, spend on the correct ND density before spending on bitrate.
The exception is a log or flat colour profile, which is deliberately low contrast so that grading can restore it. Log footage carries less contrast per bit and therefore benefits from higher bitrate more than a standard profile does. The decision about whether to shoot log at all is on log versus normal colour profile.
Card discipline in the field
Format in the aircraft, not on a computer. The camera writes its own file structure and formatting elsewhere is a recurring cause of odd behaviour.
Format before a shoot, not after. Formatting at the end of a day is how footage gets deleted before it was backed up. Offload first, verify, then format at the start of the next session.
Carry a spare in the case lid. Cards fail and they fail without warning. A cheap second card such as a Lexar 256 GB microSDXC UHS-I ($58) has saved more sessions than any accessory at the same price.
Offload with a reader, not the aircraft. A USB-C dual-slot SD and microSD card reader ($13) is faster and does not run the flight battery down while copying, which matters when the next flight is in twenty minutes.
Get the day into two places before driving home. A SanDisk 1 TB portable SSD (USB-C) ($166) in the car is the cheapest insurance in the entire kit, and the reasoning is on best storage for drone footage.
Mapping is a different storage problem
Photogrammetry captures stills rather than video, at high overlap, which means image count rather than bitrate drives the requirement. A survey grid can produce hundreds or thousands of frames in a single session, and swapping a card mid-grid is disruptive because the mission has to be resumed cleanly or lines re-flown.
For that work, one large card beats several small ones, and the image count for a planned mission comes out of the mapping mission planner. The wider workflow, including how the images are organised before processing, is on the photogrammetry workflow.
Figures on this page are computed from bitrate arithmetic and published card specifications rather than from bench testing. Actual capacity varies with formatting overhead and actual sustained write performance varies between individual cards.
Questions people ask
+ How much footage fits on a 256 GB card?
At 100 Mbps, which is typical for 4K on a consumer drone, roughly 5 hours 40 minutes. At 150 Mbps, roughly 3 hours 45 minutes. At 300 Mbps for high-bitrate 5.1K or a log profile, roughly 1 hour 50 minutes. Since a flight battery gives you well under half an hour of airborne time, a 256 GB card comfortably covers a full day of flying on most aircraft.
+ What speed class does a drone card need?
Look for the V-class mark rather than the headline read speed. V30 guarantees a sustained 30 MB/s write, which covers bitrates up to about 240 Mbps with margin. V60 and V90 guarantee 60 and 90 MB/s and are needed for the highest-bitrate modes. The large number printed on the front of most cards is a read speed and is almost irrelevant to recording.
+ Why does my drone stop recording partway through a clip?
Almost always a card that cannot sustain its write speed. Cheap cards advertise a peak figure achieved into an internal cache, and once that cache fills the sustained rate collapses below what the bitrate demands, at which point recording stops. The fix is a card with an appropriate V-class rating, not a bigger card.
+ How do I convert megabits to megabytes?
Divide by eight. A 200 Mbps bitrate is 25 MB/s of sustained write. That single conversion is why a V30 card rated at 30 MB/s handles 200 Mbps comfortably, and it is also why people misjudge card requirements: bitrates are quoted in bits and card speeds in bytes, and the factor of eight between them is easy to forget.
+ Should I use one large card or several small ones?
One large card for mapping and long sessions, because swapping mid-grid means landing and possibly re-flying lines. Several smaller cards for general shooting, because a card failure then costs part of a day rather than all of it. Either way, offload before driving home so the day exists in two places.
+ Does a higher bitrate always look better?
Up to a point, and the point arrives sooner than people expect. Higher bitrate reduces compression artefacts in complex motion such as foliage and water, which is a genuine benefit. Beyond the level where artefacts stop being visible, extra bitrate buys storage consumption and nothing else. Sensor size and exposure discipline change the image far more.
