YouTube Studio Setup Budget Calculator

1. Enter the price you were quoted for each category. Use 0 for anything you already own.
2. Enter your yearly software cost and the number of years you expect to use the gear.
3. Optionally add your budget and your videos per month, then read the total, the gap and the cost per video.

A YouTube studio setup budget is a plan for what you will spend to record and edit videos. It lists each item, its price, and the total, before you buy anything.

A studio has two kinds of cost. Gear is bought once and lasts for years: a camera, a microphone, lights, a computer, a desk. Software is paid again every year. A budget that mixes the two hides the real picture, so this calculator keeps them apart and then joins them in one monthly figure.

The tool holds no prices. Gear prices change by country, by month and by model, and no official price list exists. Any table of "what a studio costs" is someone's snapshot. You enter the prices from your own basket or quotes, and the page does the adding and the spreading.

The studio is the fixed side of production. The running side is editing, which the YouTube video editing cost calculator prices per video and per month.

The calculator adds your prices, then spreads the gear evenly across the years you plan to use it.

1. It adds the seven gear categories.
2. It adds one year of software to get the cash you need in year one.
3. It divides the gear by your years of use. This is the straight-line idea: an equal share of the cost in each year.
4. It adds software back, divides by 12, and then by your videos per month.
5. It compares the first-year cost with your budget.

The IRS describes depreciation in similar words: the recovery of the cost of property over a number of years, with a part of the cost deducted each year. The monthly equivalent on this page borrows that idea for planning only. It is not a tax schedule. US tax rules use set recovery periods and methods, and the guide to depreciation methods explains the difference.

Example prices only, not recommendations or typical costs. A creator is quoted $900 for a camera and lens, $250 for audio, $200 for lights, $150 for the room, $1,400 for a computer, $300 for furniture and $100 for other items. Software costs $360 a year. The creator expects to use the gear for 4 years, has a budget of $3,500, and posts 8 videos a month.

The studio is $160 over budget in year one. Spread over 4 years it costs $98.75 a month, or $12.34 for each of 8 monthly videos. Software is $1,440 of the 4-year total, which is 30.4%.

What You Already Own

An item you own costs nothing new. With the computer set to 0, the example gear falls to $1,900 and the first-year cost to $2,260, which is $1,240 under budget.

Years of Use

A longer life lowers the monthly figure but not the cash you need today. The example is $167.50 a month over 2 years and $75.83 over 6 years.

Software Renewals

Subscriptions repeat. In the example they add $1,440 over 4 years, close to a third of the full cost. A one-off licence moves that cost into gear.

Upload Format You Target

The format you plan to publish sets what the camera and computer must handle. YouTube Help lists 16:9 as the standard aspect ratio on a computer. It recommends a video bitrate of 8 Mbps for 1080p and 35 to 45 Mbps for 2160p at standard frame rates, and 384 kbps for stereo audio. A higher bitrate means larger files, so a 4K workflow needs more storage than a 1080p one. Help also gives the largest upload as 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.

Delivery, Duty and Returns

Shipping and import charges are real costs. Put them in the other items field so the total matches what leaves your account.

The two headline figures answer different questions, and a studio can look affordable on one and not on the other.

The monthly equivalent is only as good as the years of use you enter. Gear sold early, broken or replaced costs more per month than planned. The creator break-even calculator sets fixed costs such as these against income.

Before a First Purchase

Fill the fields from a shopping basket. The verdict shows at once whether the list fits the budget.

Choosing Between Two Baskets

Save one result, change the prices, and compare. The largest category line shows where the difference sits.

Planning an Upgrade

Enter only the new items and set the rest to 0. The result is the cost of the upgrade alone.

Setting a Monthly Savings Target

The monthly equivalent is the amount to set aside so the gear can be replaced at the end of its life. The guide on building a monthly budget shows where such a line fits.

1. Budgeting Only the Camera

In the example the camera is $900 of $3,300. The other six categories are 72.7% of the gear total.

2. Forgetting Renewals

A plan that looks cheap per month is a yearly bill. Enter the yearly amount, including storage and music licences.

3. Copying a Price List from a Blog

Published "starter" and "pro" price tiers go out of date and differ by country. Your own basket is the only current source.

4. Counting Gear You Already Own

A budget is for new spending. Enter 0 for the phone, computer or desk you already have.

5. Guessing a Long Life to Shrink the Monthly Figure

Ten years of use makes any studio look cheap. Use the period you really expect before you replace the gear.

6. Treating the Monthly Figure as a Tax Deduction

Tax rules set their own periods and methods. Ask a tax adviser how equipment is treated in your country.

The totals are exact for the prices you enter. The monthly figures depend on one estimate, the years of use.

This is an estimate, not financial or tax advice.

It costs the sum of the prices you are quoted, and no official price list exists. Enter your own basket to get the total.

It should include camera, audio, lighting, room, computer, furniture, delivery and yearly software. The tool has a field for each.

Divide the gear total by the months you expect to use it and add monthly software. $3,300 over 4 years plus $360 a year is $98.75 a month.

No fixed figure applies. It depends on the item and how you use it, so the tool asks for your own estimate.

Divide the monthly equivalent by your videos per month. $98.75 across 8 videos is $12.34 each.

YouTube Help lists recommended settings for many resolutions, from 360p to 8K. It names 16:9 as the standard aspect ratio, so 4K is one option among several.

The page cannot say for your case. The IRS describes depreciation as recovering the cost of property over a number of years, and the rules are detailed. Ask a tax adviser.

Count a subscription as yearly and a one-off licence as gear. In the example, subscriptions are 30.4% of the 4-year cost.

This tool totals the one-off studio purchase. The editing tool prices the recurring cost of editing each video.

No. The maths runs in your browser and nothing is sent to us. Save keeps a result only in this browser.

• YouTube recommended upload encoding settings (YouTube Help; recommended bitrates by resolution, audio bitrates and the 16:9 standard aspect ratio. Read 2026-10-03.)
• Upload videos longer than 15 minutes (YouTube Help; upload length and file size limits. Read 2026-10-03.)
• Topic No. 704, Depreciation (US Internal Revenue Service; depreciation as the recovery of the cost of property over a number of years. Read 2026-10-03.)