Approximate Youtube Bitrates

I’ve been wondering what bitrates Youtube produces on files, but they don’t upfront say.

New videos are encoded in eight formats. However, due to bug in Youtube, some 24 fps videos (such as those from film sources) will have duplicate frames inserted to make them 30 fps, causing a very noticeable jitter approximately twice a second.

Format	Video Codec	Audio Codec	Container
37	H.264 1920×1080 24/30 fps	AAC 44.1khz Stereo	mp4
22	H.264 1280×720 24/30 fps	AAC 44.1khz Stereo	mp4
35	H.264 854×480 24/30 fps	AAC 44.1khz Stereo	flv
34	H.264 640×480 24/30 fps	AAC 44.1khz Stereo	flv
18	H.264, 480×360 24/30 fps	AAC 44.1khz Stereo	mp4
5	Sorenson Spark, 320×240 24/30 fps	MP3 22khz Stereo	flv
17	MPEG-4 ASP, 12 fps, black bordered to fit 176×144 frame	AAC 22khz Mono	mp4
13	H.263+, 15 fps, stretched to full frame 176×144 ignoring source aspect ratio	AMR 8khz Mono	3gp

Note: This does not include WebM videos yet as the support is still experimental, and Youtube is not yet encoding videos in 1080p, only 720p (format 45) and 480p (format 43).

Now lets see how a couple high quality videos fair on Youtube.

Format	Resolution	Video and audio bitrate in kbit/sec
The Dark Knight Trailer 3 1080p, using the Apple version. 2:30 long. H.264, 6ch 48khz AAC audio, 24 fps. Youtube encoded this as a 30 fps video.
Original	1920×816	10518	260
37	1920×816	3427	108.8
22	1280×544	1998	108.8
35	Missing on Youtube
34	640×272	517	95
18	480×204	500	108.5
5	320×136	257	64
17	176×144	55.3	27
13	176×144	55.6	13
Avatar Trailer 1080p, using the Apple version. 3:29 long. H.264, stereo 44.1khz AAC audio, 24 fps.
Original	1920×800	9726	99
37	1920×800	3502	126
22	1280×534	2003	126
35	854×356	806	103.84
34	640×266	554	103.81
18	480×200	486	103.82
5	400×166	255	59
17	176×144	55	28
13	176×144	54	13
Big Buck Bunny 1080p, using the Blender Foundation‘s original version. 9:57 long. Theora, stereo 48khz Vorbis audio, 24 fps.
Original	1920×1080	11902	175
37	1920×1080	3531	125
22	1280×720	2020	125
35	854×480	990	107.9
34	640×360	494	108.02
18	480×270	435	108.03
5	400×226	250	59
17	176×144	55	30
13	176×144	49	12