Moonlight Bitrate Calculator: How to Set It

The Moonlight bitrate calculator works out a sensible streaming bitrate for game streaming over your network, based on your resolution, frame rate, and available bandwidth. You enter your network speed, resolution, and frame rate, and it returns the maximum bitrate you can safely use without stuttering or image quality loss. This guide explains the formula, how to choose the right settings, and common mistakes to avoid.

Formula

The core formula is simple: Recommended bitrate = Available bandwidth × 0.8. The 0.8 factor (80%) accounts for network overhead, Wi-Fi interference, and other traffic on your network. The remaining 20% is a safety margin to prevent packet loss and stuttering.

Variables:

• Available bandwidth (Mbps): The sustained throughput between your PC and the streaming client, measured in megabits per second.
• Recommended bitrate (Mbps): The maximum bitrate you should set in Moonlight’s client settings.

For resolution and frame rate, Moonlight’s recommended bitrates are roughly:

• 1080p @ 60 fps: 20–30 Mbps
• 1440p @ 60 fps: 30–45 Mbps
• 4K @ 60 fps: 50–80 Mbps
• 4K @ 120 fps: 80–120 Mbps

These are practical ranges, not strict limits. The calculator above uses your bandwidth to find the maximum safe bitrate, but you should also stay within these ranges for your resolution/fps to avoid encoding strain on your GPU.

Worked Example

Using the default values: bandwidth = 50 Mbps, resolution = 1080p, frame rate = 60 fps.

1. Multiply bandwidth by 0.8: 50 × 0.8 = 40 Mbps.
2. The recommended bitrate is 40 Mbps.
3. Since 40 Mbps is within the 1080p60 range (20–30 Mbps is typical, but 40 is acceptable on a wired LAN), you can set Moonlight to 40 Mbps.

If you had 4K @ 60 fps, the calculator would still give 40 Mbps, but you’d want to lower it to ~30 Mbps to match the resolution’s typical ceiling, or increase bandwidth if possible.

Why Bitrate Matters in Moonlight

Moonlight is an open-source client for NVIDIA GameStream (now deprecated) and Sunshine, which lets you stream games from a PC to other devices. The bitrate determines how much data is sent per second. Too low, and you see blocky compression artifacts, especially in fast-moving scenes. Too high, and your network can’t keep up, causing stuttering, input lag, and disconnects.

The right bitrate balances visual quality and smoothness. On a wired Gigabit LAN, you can often use 100+ Mbps, but on Wi-Fi, you need to be conservative because real-world throughput is much lower than the link speed.

How to Choose the Right Bitrate

Follow these steps to find your optimal setting:

1. Measure your actual network throughput between the host PC and the client device. Use a tool like iperf3 or a simple file transfer over SMB. Don’t trust the Wi-Fi link speed (e.g., 300 Mbps) – real throughput is often half that.
2. Enter that number into the calculator above to get a starting bitrate.
3. In Moonlight, set the bitrate to that value, then test with a fast-paced game. If you see stuttering, lower the bitrate by 5–10 Mbps.
4. If you see blocky artifacts but no stuttering, raise the bitrate slightly.
5. For 4K or 120 fps, you may need to adjust the resolution/fps in Moonlight’s settings to match your display and network capacity.

Common Mistakes and Misconceptions

One big mistake is using your internet download speed as the bandwidth. Moonlight streams over your local network (LAN), not the internet, unless you’ve set up remote streaming. Your internet speed is irrelevant for in-home streaming.

Another error is ignoring Wi-Fi interference. Even with a strong signal, Wi-Fi throughput fluctuates. If you’re on Wi-Fi, subtract an extra 20–30% from your measured throughput. Wired Ethernet is always better for high-bitrate streaming.

Also, don’t set the bitrate higher than your GPU can encode. The encoder (NVENC on NVIDIA GPUs) has a maximum bitrate limit; setting it too high can cause the encoder to drop frames. Stick to the ranges listed above.

Finally, remember that Moonlight’s “bitrate” setting is in Mbps, not MB/s. 1 MB/s = 8 Mbps. A common mistake is entering 50 MB/s thinking it’s 50 Mbps, which would actually be 400 Mbps – way too high for most networks.

Limits of the Formula

The 80% rule is a heuristic, not a guarantee. It doesn’t account for:

• Network jitter and packet loss (especially on Wi-Fi).
• Other devices competing for bandwidth.
• CPU/GPU encoding performance.
• Display resolution and refresh rate (the calculator only uses bandwidth, not resolution/fps, in its formula).

For a more precise number, you can run a network test and monitor Moonlight’s performance statistics (press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S while streaming) to see actual bitrate, frame loss, and network latency. Use that data to fine-tune.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good bitrate for 1080p 60fps streaming?

For 1080p60, a bitrate of 20–30 Mbps is usually sufficient for high quality. On a wired LAN, you can go higher (40–50 Mbps) for near-lossless quality, but it’s unnecessary for most games.

Can I use my internet speed to calculate Moonlight bitrate?

No. Moonlight streams over your local network, so your internet download/upload speed doesn’t matter unless you’re using remote streaming over the internet. For remote streaming, you’d need to consider your upload speed and the client’s download speed, but the formula remains the same: use the lowest of the two, multiplied by 0.8.

Why does Moonlight stutter even with a high bitrate?

Stuttering is often caused by network jitter or packet loss, not raw bandwidth. Check your Wi-Fi signal strength, move closer to the router, or use Ethernet. Also, lower the bitrate to give more headroom. Your GPU might also be struggling to encode at the high bitrate.

Is a higher bitrate always better?

No. Higher bitrate means more data, which can saturate your network and cause latency. It also increases encoder load. The goal is the lowest bitrate that still looks good to you. Start with the calculator’s value and adjust based on visual quality.

Does Moonlight support 4K and 120 fps?

Yes, Moonlight supports up to 4K and 120 fps if your host GPU and client device can handle it. You’ll need a high bitrate (80–120 Mbps) and a wired network for best results.

What if my network is slower than 20 Mbps?

For 1080p30, you can get acceptable quality at 10–15 Mbps. Below 10 Mbps, you’ll likely see heavy compression artifacts. Consider lowering the resolution to 720p or reducing the frame rate to 30 fps.

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in bandwidth | Network bandwidth (Mbps) | Mbps | 50 | 1
in resolution | Resolution | 1080p=1, 1440p=2, 4K=3 | 1
in fps | Frame rate (fps) | fps | 60 | 1
out bitrate | Recommended bitrate (Mbps) | Mbps | bandwidth * 0.8 | 0
out overhead | Bandwidth reserved for overhead | Mbps | bandwidth * 0.2 | 0