---
title: 'Best OBS Studio Settings for STREAMING in 2026 (For Beginners)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=gLD38bLE1O0'
video_id: 'gLD38bLE1O0'
date: 2026-06-14
duration_sec: 337
---

# Best OBS Studio Settings for STREAMING in 2026 (For Beginners)

> Source: [Best OBS Studio Settings for STREAMING in 2026 (For Beginners)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=gLD38bLE1O0)

## Summary

This video provides a step-by-step guide to configuring OBS Studio for high-quality, lag-free streaming, tailored for beginners. The presenter shares optimal settings for video, audio, and encoder configurations to achieve a professional stream.

### Key Points

- **Open OBS and Access Settings** [00:36] — Open OBS Studio and click on 'Settings' in the bottom right corner.
- **Connect Twitch Account** [00:50] — In the Stream tab, connect your Twitch account. This also enables adding Twitch chat and stats to the OBS dock.
- **Disable Enhanced Broadcasting** [01:18] — Uncheck 'Enable enhanced broadcasting' and check 'Ignore streaming service setting recommendations' to have full control.
- **Switch to Advanced Output Mode** [01:35] — In the Output tab, change output mode from Simple to Advanced.
- **Choose Video Encoder** [02:09] — For Nvidia GPUs, use NVENC H.264; for AMD, use equivalent; otherwise, use x264 (CPU-intensive).
- **Set Bitrate and Keyframe Interval** [02:27] — Set rate control to CBR, bitrate to 8000 (6000 for affiliates, 8000 for partners), keyframe interval to 2.
- **Encoder Preset and Tuning** [03:00] — Set preset between P5 and P7 (P6 recommended), profile to high, and enable psycho visual tuning.
- **Audio Bitrate Settings** [03:19] — In the Audio tab, set all audio bitrates to 320 for best quality.
- **Configure Audio Devices** [03:34] — In the Audio tab, select correct desktop audio and microphone devices.
- **Video Resolution and FPS** [03:53] — Set base canvas resolution to your gaming resolution (e.g., 1920x1080), output resolution to same, and FPS to 60.
- **Advanced Network Settings** [04:40] — Enable 'Automatically reconnect' and optionally 'Dynamically change bitrate to manage congestion' for unstable networks.

### Conclusion

By following these OBS settings, you can achieve a crystal-clear, smooth stream. The video also promotes a separate guide for the Twitch VOD track feature to avoid copyright issues.

## Transcript

every streamer wants their stream to
look Crystal Clear without any lag the
only problem is the settings are super
complicated and hard to understand for
normal people so that's why in this
video I'm going to reveal to you the
best stream settings to use an OBS
Studio that turned my stream from being
a laggy PowerPoint presentation that had
me looking like a Minecraft character to
a nice smooth Crystal Clear professional
stream and the reason why most people
don't get their streams to look this
nice is because they don't know the
exact settings to use so whether this is
your first time in OBS Studio or you've
been streaming for a while these
settings will apply to anyone who wants
the best video quality for their streams
first thing we need to do is open up OBS
Studio duh it's in the title if you're
wondering where I got this dope starting
soon graphic it's actually in my
streamer starter pack which is in the
description below but we want to go to
the settings in the bottom right corner
so click on settings and then we're
going to actually skip General in
appearance cuz it Doesn't Really Matter
we're going to go straight to stream
then from here we're going to connect
our Twitch account or whatever thing
you're using here so in this case I have
my Twitch account connected with this
button and a cool thing about connecting
your Twitch Channel this way is that if
you hit okay go to the doc Tab and now
you can add your Twitch chat your stream
info your Twitch stats and your activity
feed all in the dock here so if you
click on Twitch chat it'll automatically
pop it here so you can automatically
just see it in OBS Studio Isn't that
cool but let's go back to the settings
in the bottom right corner click
settings then we'll go back to stream
and then we're want to uncheck enable
enhanced broadcasting because it's going
to allow us to change more settings then
once you've done that make sure to check
ignore streaming service setting
recommendations because that way it'll
use what we tell it to instead of what
this tells it to instead which will make
more sense in just a second so then hit
apply and then we're going to move to
the scariest part which is the output
tab but don't freak out I got you guys
go to the top where it says output mode
and change it from simple to Advanced
which I know is counterproductive to
people wanting to keep it simple but
trust me then we'll make sure we're on
the streaming Tab and then we'll make
sure that the audio track is on one and
so any audio that we say is on track one
will be sent to our stream then for our
audio encoder keep it at fmm the twitch
VOD track is actually a very useful
setting which will allow you to play
copyrighted music on your Twitch streams
without getting the little warnings or
your vodes muted after but I'm going to
touch on this setting at the very end of
the video so make sure to stick around
for it because you don't want your
channel getting in trouble for the video
encoder if you're using a Nvidia
graphics card you're want to use Nvidia
enve h264 and if you don't have this
you're using AMD you're going to want to
use whatever the AMD equivalent is and
if you don't have either of those then
you're going to want to use x264 but
that's going to use a lot of resources
on your computer which might run into
issues the next important setting is
we'll go to the encoder settings we're
going to change rate control to CBR and
we're going to change the bit rate to
8,000 we used to have it on 6,000 which
is also very good bit rate but sometimes
when you're streaming if there's extra
resources available it will boost it up
to 8,000 which will give you even better
quality if you're a regular twitch
streamer or a twitch affiliate however
if your partner then you'll almost
always get the 8,000 kilobits per second
quality but don't put it any higher than
8,000 because then you will actually
nuke your stream so don't do that next
we're going to change the key frame
interval to two others like to have it
on zero either is really fine but I
prefer two the pre set you want to have
anywhere between P5 and p7 I'm just
going to have it on P6 if you have a
really good computer put it at p7 if you
have a not so great computer do P5
somewhere in between P6 then we're going
to do high quality two passes High
enable psycho visual tuning GPU 0 and
Max B frames 2 which is pretty standard
then we're going to click on the audio
portion a little two tabs in we're going
to change all of these audio bit rates
to 320 to give us the best audio quality
as well so now after doing these
specific settings this is going to give
you a good quality but we still need to
do a couple more things to make sure
it's the best quality so we're going to
go to the audio Tab and make sure that
you have your correct desktop audio
selected this is going to be wherever
your computer speakers are so in this
case I'm using the yaha zg1 which is
holding all of my computer audio so we
have that and then for your mic simply
pick your microphone from the list I'm
using the road pod mic USB love this bad
boy also linked in the description below
then we'll hit apply and then we'll move
to the video tab now this part's a
little complicated so pay attention for
the base canvas resolution you're going
to want to pick whatever you're gaming
at I'm gaming at 1080P and I'm also on a
1080p monitor so I'm going to choose the
1080p option now I'm also wanting to
stream at 1080p 60 frames per second so
that means my output resolution is also
going to be 1080 if these are different
it's going to make you pick a downscale
filter in which you're going to want to
pick L Cod cuz it give you the best
quality but since these are the same I
don't need one then since we want to
stream at 1080p 60 frames per second
we're going to change our common FPS
value to 60 so that way we have 1080p 60
frames per second makes sense right then
obviously hit apply and if this has been
helpful so far drop a quick like on the
video because it's going to help other
people find more of these videos and
then we can skip hot keys and
accessibility because they're just going
to waste your time really and we jump
straight to Advanced where the only
thing that you really need to consider
here is the automatically reconnect make
sure this is enabled because if your
stream disconnects you'll retry a couple
times to keep the stream going and then
this is an optional setting but can be
really useful so right under Network
there's an option that says dynamically
change bit rate to manage congestion
essentially if you have other people on
your network like your Wi-Fi and they're
like streaming at 4K and just like the
amount of internet kind of goes up and
down you might want to enable this
because if you are streaming at high
quality and you don't have enough
resources from your internet cuz other
people are hogging it all up this will
lower the quality of your stream instead
of making you buffer and stutter like
this so if you want you can do that but
if that's not a problem to you you can
leave it off so it's up to you then you
can hit apply okay and now you got a
crystal clear stream but if you're
streaming on Twitch you're definitely
going to want to take advantage of this
twitch VOD track feature right here and
you're going to want to watch this video
to the side of me where I explain it all
in full detail so give that video a
watch my name's Cody and I'll see you in
the next one