Tool 05 · After publish

Archive Planner: shrink your masters, keep your options

Your video is live. Now the 10 GB master is eating your drive. This tool calculates the smallest archive version that's still good enough to re-upload anywhere later — so you can free the space without the fear.

Your master file

10 min1 h2 h3 h4 h
2 h
115304560 GB
12 GB
"Re-upload" targets 1080p platform quality. "Re-editing" keeps a higher-bitrate mezzanine so you can cut and re-export from it.

Archive plan

Archive at
1080p · 6 Mbps
Archive file size
5.5GB
Space you free up
6.5 GB(54%)
archiveoriginal size
Still good for
Get the exact FFmpeg / HandBrake settings →

The 3-file rule for long-form creators

Storage panic comes from one wrong assumption: that you must keep every export at full size forever. You don't. After a video is published, you only need three things:

  1. The project file from your editor (Premiere / DaVinci) plus source audio — tiny, and it can regenerate everything.
  2. One archive master — the compressed version this tool calculates. Good enough to re-upload to any platform, small enough to keep hundreds of them.
  3. The published copy on YouTube itself — YouTube stores your upload; you can even re-download a processed version if disaster strikes.

Everything else — the 12 GB upload master, the intermediate renders — can be deleted after the video is live and the archive version is verified playable.

Why a compressed archive is safe

Every platform you'd ever re-upload to (YouTube, Bilibili, Instagram, TikTok) re-encodes your file again anyway. As long as your archive stays above each platform's quality floor, viewers see the same result whether you fed it a 12 GB master or a 4 GB archive. For static-artwork music videos, the safe floor is dramatically lower — most of those gigabytes were never visible to begin with.

When NOT to compress your archive

Keep the full master if the video contains irreplaceable live footage (a one-time performance, an event) or if you plan heavy color re-grading later. Compression discards data that re-editing might want back. For everything reproducible from a project file, the archive version is enough.

Frequently asked questions

If I archive at 1080p, can I ever go back to 4K?

Not from the archive file — but yes from your project file, which can re-export 4K anytime. That's why the 3-file rule keeps the project file: the archive covers re-uploads, the project covers re-creation.

What codec should the archive use?

H.265 (HEVC) gives roughly 40% smaller files than H.264 at the same quality and is the best archive choice today. If maximum compatibility matters more than size, H.264 remains the safe default.

Where should archives live?

One local external drive plus one offsite copy (cloud object storage like Backblaze B2 runs about $6/TB/month). Two copies, two locations — that's the minimum that counts as a backup.