1 TB is too small for almost anyone working in 4K. 8 TB is overkill if you make YouTube vlogs in H.265. The right answer is somewhere in between, and it depends entirely on what you shoot and how often you finish projects.
Picking SSD size for editing is like choosing a memory card for a shoot. You do not pick the biggest one available. You pick one that holds the day's footage with room to spare. Get that wrong and you are deleting takes mid-shoot or carrying around a card that is mostly empty.
Here is how to size an SSD for actual 4K editing work.
The 4K Codec Storage Table
Storage need scales with codec, not just resolution. A 4K H.265 file from a Sony A7S III is six to ten times smaller than a 4K ProRes file from the same camera transcoded for editing. Ten times smaller. That changes everything about how big a drive you need.
| Codec | Storage per minute | Per hour |
|---|---|---|
| H.265 4K (60 Mbps) | 110 MB | 6.6 GB |
| H.265 4K (200 Mbps) | 380 MB | 22 GB |
| ProRes Proxy 4K | 200 MB | 12 GB |
| ProRes 422 LT 4K | 410 MB | 25 GB |
| ProRes 422 4K | 590 MB | 35 GB |
| ProRes 422 HQ 4K | 880 MB | 53 GB |
| ProRes 4444 4K | 1320 MB | 79 GB |
| BRAW Q5 6K | 800 MB | 48 GB |
| BRAW Q3 6K | 1300 MB | 78 GB |
| R3D HQ 8K | 1500 MB | 90 GB |
These are rough averages. Bitrate spikes during high-motion scenes will push numbers higher, especially for variable-bitrate codecs.
What 1 TB Holds in Real Hours
Same data, flipped around. If you have a 1 TB SSD and you usually work in one specific codec, here is roughly what you can store before the drive fills.
| Codec | Hours on 1 TB |
|---|---|
| H.265 4K (60 Mbps) | ~150 hours |
| H.265 4K (200 Mbps) | ~45 hours |
| ProRes 422 4K | ~28 hours |
| ProRes 422 HQ 4K | ~19 hours |
| ProRes 4444 4K | ~12 hours |
| BRAW Q5 6K | ~21 hours |
| R3D HQ 8K | ~11 hours |
Subtract another 30 percent for cache, proxies, exports, project files, and the ten versions of the cut. The "real" working capacity of a 1 TB SSD is closer to 700 GB once you account for everything else a project drags along.
By Workflow
The cleanest way to think about SSD sizing is by your typical project profile.
YouTube creator (mostly H.265)
You shoot maybe 30 minutes per week of footage at 4K H.265, cut it into a 12-minute video, and move on. Storage need is tiny. A 1 TB SSD holds many months of work.
Recommended size: 1 TB for active editing, with a separate cheap external for archive.
Wedding videographer (single shooter, ProRes finish)
You shoot 8 hours of footage per wedding. If your camera shoots H.265 internally and you transcode to ProRes 422 HQ for editing, that 8 hours of source becomes about 425 GB of editing media plus another ~150 GB of cache and proxies. One wedding is around 600 GB on disk during the active edit.
Recommended size: 4 TB to comfortably hold three to four weddings in flight at once with the 30 percent headroom buffer.
Wedding videographer (multi-cam, RED Komodo or similar)
Same 8 hours of shoot, but two or three RED cameras at 6K or 8K. You are now in the 1.5 to 2 TB per wedding range for raw alone. Add proxies and cache and you are at 3 TB per wedding.
Recommended size: 8 TB for active editing, possibly with a NAS for shared archive.
Documentary editor (long-form ProRes workflow)
A 45-minute documentary episode at a 30:1 shoot ratio gives you about 22 hours of source. In ProRes 422 HQ that is ~1.2 TB of media before the edit even starts. Add proxies, sound design, color, exports.
Recommended size: 8-12 TB for active editing.
Commercial editor (short-form, raw codec)
A 60-second commercial at 100:1 with R3D HQ 8K is ~150 GB of raw alone. Add proxies and finishing files and one project is around 400-500 GB. Multiple jobs in flight.
Recommended size: 8 TB for active.
The Rolling-Window Trick
The single biggest mistake in SSD sizing is trying to store your entire career on the working drive. You do not need that. You need active projects plus the recent past.
Three months of completed work plus current projects in flight is enough rolling window for almost anyone. Older work moves to archive (a slow, cheap, large drive or a NAS). The active SSD stays focused on what you are touching now.
This works because almost no client comes back six months later asking for changes. When they do, restoring a project from archive takes an hour. Compare that to the ongoing cost of trying to keep five years of projects fast and accessible.
For a more precise sizing pass, the storage calculator can show you what your active footprint should look like based on shoot volume, and what your archive should be sized at separately.
Internal vs External: When to Use Which
Mac internal storage runs $200 to $400 per terabyte premium over external SSD. You pay that premium for genuinely faster speeds (the latest M-series SSDs sustain 5000+ MB/s) and zero cables.
The internal storage is worth it for: the OS, applications, scratch and cache, the active project file. Anything that benefits from absolute fastest speed and is small enough to fit comfortably.
External SSD is worth it for: the bulk of your media. A good Thunderbolt or USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 SSD delivers 1500-2700 MB/s sustained, which is plenty for any 4K codec including 8K R3D single-stream. Paying $400/TB extra to keep raw footage on internal is hard to justify.
The split most working editors land on: 1 to 2 TB internal, 4 to 8 TB external. The internal handles cache, scratch, exports, and the immediate active session. The external holds the bulk of the project media.
If you want a more detailed look at which external SSDs hold up for sustained 4K editing, the external SSD buyer guide covers the current set.
Before You Buy a Bigger Drive
The most common reason editors think they need 8 TB instead of 4 is that their current drive is full of things they are not using. Cache files, abandoned projects, footage that never made the cut. Clip Sweeper scans your Premiere projects and tells you exactly which files are referenced on a timeline. On a typical drive, the cleanup pass reclaims more space than the upgrade would have added. Same outcome, no purchase required.