Best OBS Studio Settings for Streaming (High Quality & No Lag) [2026]

[00:00] if you don't want to have laggy streams

[00:02] or streams that just look bad after you

[00:04] invested so much time in making your

[00:06] stream look professional then this video

[00:08] is going to be for you I'm going to

[00:09] share the exact settings you should be

[00:11] utilizing when you're streaming using

[00:13] OBS studio and it doesn't matter whether

[00:15] you're streaming to YouTube to Twitch or

[00:17] to KI these settings are going to work

[00:19] exactly the same for every single

[00:21] platform and if you're new here welcome

[00:23] to the streamer Academy where I help you

[00:24] start create and grow your stream so go

[00:26] ahead and check out the streamer

[00:28] academy.com for tons of free resources

[00:30] on growing your Stream So the first

[00:32] thing we're going to want to do to make

[00:33] sure your settings are dialed in is open

[00:35] up OBS Studio once you have it open

[00:37] we're going to select settings and the

[00:39] first thing we're going to do is we're

[00:40] going to go to where it says Advance

[00:42] this is where we're going to make some

[00:43] adjustments to make sure that everything

[00:45] is running smoothly again if you copy

[00:48] these settings exactly how I have them

[00:50] you'll never have to change them again

[00:52] unless you experience some massive lag

[00:54] so here under Advance you go and go

[00:56] ahead and select dynamically change bit

[00:58] rate to manage congestion this is going

[01:00] to be good because it's going to allow

[01:01] you to know whether your internet speed

[01:03] is dropping or it's being utilized too

[01:05] much this is going to allow it to let

[01:07] OBS know that hey if I'm having issues

[01:09] with my internet adjust my settings to

[01:11] make sure that my stream stays smooth

[01:13] for my viewers so make sure you select

[01:15] that on buying to IP you want to make

[01:17] sure that's set to default once you've

[01:19] done that we're going to come to the

[01:20] video tab here for base canvas you're

[01:23] going to want to do 1920 by 1080 and

[01:26] then for the output scale resolution you

[01:28] want to be able to match and then

[01:30] for the FPS if you're just going to do

[01:32] talking head you can have it leave it at

[01:34] 30 frames per second but if you're going

[01:35] to be gaming which most of you are

[01:37] you're going to want to put this at 60

[01:39] if you start to see a little bit of lag

[01:41] you can drop it to 30 and you should be

[01:42] good but having it at this settings here

[01:45] should be the things that you need to

[01:46] make sure your stream looks good once

[01:48] you have that you're going to come to

[01:49] where it says audio and for your audio

[01:51] sample rate you want to make sure this

[01:52] is at 48 audio is by far more important

[01:55] than video so if your audio doesn't

[01:57] sound good for your viewers then they're

[01:59] not going to stick around and keep

[02:00] watching your stream then you want to

[02:02] come to where it says here output and

[02:04] this is where the big bulk of the

[02:06] settings are going to be now we're going

[02:07] to dive in and work through every aspect

[02:10] of this part here but before we do we

[02:12] need to make sure we understand what

[02:14] your internet speed is because that's a

[02:16] big component as to what settings you

[02:18] can utilize so what you're going to do

[02:20] is you're going to go to speedtest.net

[02:22] and again I'll put a link in the

[02:24] description of this video you're going

[02:25] to hit the big go button in the center

[02:28] of the screen and that's going to go

[02:30] ahead and give you your upload and your

[02:32] download okay for the settings the best

[02:34] settings that will work across every

[02:36] streaming platform that you're going to

[02:37] go to you want to focus on this upload

[02:40] number now I have 944 which is massively

[02:43] overkill for what we need here today you

[02:45] just need this number to be at minimum

[02:48] 10 right it needs to say

[02:50] 1.0 the more you have the better but at

[02:53] minimum you want to have 10 if this says

[02:55] two if it says three if it says four it

[02:57] says five you're going to have a little

[02:58] bit of a struggle with these settings

[03:00] and you're going to want to watch

[03:01] another video which I'll put a link in

[03:02] the description of this video for

[03:04] settings for OBS if you have a low end

[03:06] or low internet speed okay if this says

[03:09] 10 or more you're going to be good to go

[03:11] to utilize the settings that I have here

[03:12] today okay so once you understand that

[03:14] we can come back here to OBS and finish

[03:16] up setting up this process so for

[03:18] streaming you want to make sure for the

[03:19] output you select Advance we want to

[03:21] have the audio encoder you want to leave

[03:23] it as is the twitch VOD track you can

[03:26] leave that as is for now the video

[03:28] encoder this is going to be super

[03:29] important if you have Nvidia envic h264

[03:32] this is the one you want to select if

[03:33] you don't x264 is going to be your only

[03:35] option so we'll select that you'll come

[03:37] here to the rate control you want to

[03:39] make sure it says constant bit rate this

[03:41] is the number that's going to determine

[03:43] based off the internet check we just

[03:44] went ahead and did and again if you have

[03:46] 10 or more you're going to be able to

[03:47] put in the number that I have here which

[03:49] is going to be 6,000 this is all you

[03:52] need to have a 1080p 60 frames per

[03:55] second quality stream on every single

[03:57] platform and if you decide to

[03:58] multistream you're not have changing

[04:00] settings they're going to work exactly

[04:01] the same and give the best experience

[04:03] for your viewer then for the key frame

[04:05] intervals we're going to want to select

[04:06] two we'll put two there for the preset

[04:08] this is going to be kind of determined

[04:10] based on your computer but again if you

[04:12] want the smoothest experience without

[04:14] any kind of issues you can just go ahead

[04:16] and select good quality or you can go

[04:18] ahead and select medium quality one of

[04:20] these is going to be good if you start

[04:21] to experience some lags or you don't

[04:22] have a really strong PC you can come and

[04:24] select the lowest quality or lower

[04:26] quality the closer you are to P1 the

[04:28] less strain you have on your PC the more

[04:30] you're closer to p7 the more strain you

[04:32] put on your PC right so I like to keep

[04:34] it at medium quality or good quality is

[04:36] going to be a good spot High tuning you

[04:37] want to have this at high quality

[04:40] multipass you want to have it at two

[04:41] passes profile you want to have it at

[04:44] high look ahead you want to make sure

[04:46] you uncheck this and then adaptive

[04:49] quantisation can't even pronounce that

[04:51] um you want to make sure that's on but

[04:52] this used to be Psycho tuning which is a

[04:54] good feature to have added in your

[04:56] settings and then for brief frames you

[04:58] want to have that at two you want to

[05:00] select apply press okay and now your

[05:03] settings are literally dialed in for

[05:05] streaming no matter what platform you go

[05:07] to but what if you don't want to stream

[05:09] every time and you just want to use OBS

[05:11] to be able to record these settings are

[05:14] not going to work for recording that's a

[05:16] different set of settings so if you want

[05:18] the best recording settings for OBS

[05:20] Studio to get the best quality recording

[05:22] from it go ahead and watch this video

[05:24] right here where I walk you step by step

[05:25] on the best recording settings at OBS

[05:27] I'll see you guys in the next video