How much storage does a video editor actually need for client review?

For most freelance editors, 150 GB covers client review comfortably — the files that fill storage fast are your working masters, not the cuts you actually send out for feedback. The trick is knowing which files belong in a review tool and which belong on your own drive. Here’s the real math, in plain numbers.

What actually takes up space

Video file size comes down to three things: resolution, codec, and length. The codec matters more than people expect — the same one-minute clip can be 200 MB or 4 GB depending on how it’s exported.

Rough sizes for one minute of video:

1080p, H.264 (delivery export): ~60–130 MB
1080p, ProRes 422 (master): ~1.5 GB
4K, H.264 (delivery export): ~250–400 MB
4K, ProRes 422 HQ (master): ~5–6 GB

See the gap? A ten-minute 4K ProRes master is ~55 GB. The same ten minutes exported as an H.264 review file is under 4 GB. That difference is the whole point of sizing your storage correctly.

The file you upload for review is not your master

This is where most editors over-estimate what they need. You do not upload your ProRes masters for a client to review. You upload a compressed H.264 (or H.265) export — the same file you’d send over WeTransfer or a Drive link anyway. It looks identical to the client on a laptop or phone screen, and it’s a fraction of the size.

So your review storage is really holding:

The current cut (compressed), per active project
A couple of past versions you’re keeping for comparison
Maybe a few reference or source clips a reviewer needs to see

Your 6 GB ProRes master stays on your own SSD where it belongs.

A realistic example

Say you’re a freelancer running 5 active client projects at once. Each one is a 4K delivery, roughly 8 minutes, and you keep 3 versions on hand for review:

8 min × ~350 MB/min (4K H.264) ≈ 2.8 GB per version
3 versions ≈ ~8.4 GB per project
5 active projects ≈ ~42 GB in play at any time

Even with headroom for source clips and the odd longer project, that sits well inside 150 GB. A busy studio juggling long-form 4K work, or an agency running many clients at once, is where 500 GB starts to make sense.

How to keep it from creeping up

Storage only becomes a problem when finished work never leaves. Two habits fix that:

Archive, don’t hoard. Once a project is approved and delivered, you don’t need its review copies live. Move the master to your own archive drive and delete the finished project from the review tool. The feedback thread is history at that point — you’re done with it.
Don’t upload every intermediate render. Upload a new version when there’s a real round to review, not every time you nudge a keyframe. Three meaningful versions beat fifteen near-identical ones.

You can watch your usage any time on the storage and usage page, so there’s no guessing.

Why storage-based pricing is the honest model for this

Here’s the part that matters when you’re picking a tool. Most video review platforms charge per seat — you pay for every person you add, and storage is an afterthought. That’s backwards for how editors actually work: you add a teammate or an assistant and the bill jumps, even though the thing that actually costs money to run is the video files.

Editlock flips it. You pay for storage, and people are free:

₹599/month for 150 GB (Starter) — comfortable for a solo freelancer running several clients
₹1,699/month for 500 GB (Studio) — for busy studios and agencies with heavy 4K work
Unlimited reviewers and team members on every plan — clients never pay, teammates never add to the bill

It’s billed in rupees over UPI, RuPay, or net banking with a GST invoice — no per-seat dollar figure that climbs every time your team grows. We broke down how that compares to Frame.io’s pricing in Frame.io pricing in INR and side-by-side in Editlock vs Frame.io.

The bottom line

Size your storage around your compressed review exports and active projects, not your ProRes masters — those stay on your own drive. For most freelancers that’s comfortably under 150 GB; studios running lots of long 4K work grow into 500 GB. Keep finished projects archived and you’ll rarely think about it again. Start free on Editlock, upload one real project, and see how little space client review actually takes.