Estimate tightly packed, uncompressed pixel storage from dimensions and stored bits per pixel, or convert between color-bit depth and color-code capacity. Alpha contributes to storage but not RGB color count.

Estimate tightly packed pixel data, excluding compression, metadata and row padding.

Selecting a shortcut fills the dimensions; you may then edit them.

Default 24: RGB with 8 bits per channel. Include alpha for storage: RGBA uses 32 bits. Fractional values represent average storage, not discrete color depth.

Bits Per Pixel Formula

The following identity applies when color depth means the total color bits per pixel and there are no alpha or padding bits.

BPP = CD

Variables:

  • BPP is the bits per pixel
  • CD is the total color depth per pixel in bits, not bits per channel

For storage, add the bits in all stored channels, including alpha. Packed bytes = ceiling(width × height × stored BPP ÷ 8). Color-code capacity = 2^(color bits), excluding alpha. Bits needed for N colors = ceiling(log₂ N), with a minimum one-bit encoding in this calculator.

What is Bits Per Pixel (BPP)?

Bits per pixel (BPP) is a measure of the number of bits used to represent each pixel in a digital image or video. It is directly related to the color depth, which defines the number of distinct colors that can be represented. More color bits allow more color codes, but alpha, padding, compression and the actual image content must also be considered. Higher stored BPP alone does not guarantee higher image quality.

How to Calculate Bits Per Pixel?

The following steps outline how to calculate the Bits Per Pixel (BPP).

  1. First, select the storage, color-capacity or required-bits mode.
  2. For storage, enter whole-pixel width and height and all stored bits per pixel. Resolution shortcuts and format suggestions are available.
  3. For color capacity, enter whole color bits excluding alpha; for required bits, enter a positive whole color count.
  4. Select Calculate. Storage excludes metadata, compression, palettes and row padding, so it is not a PNG, JPEG or RAW file-size prediction.

Example Problem : 

Use the following variable as an example problem to test your knowledge.

RGB with 8 bits per channel uses 24 color bits and supports 16,777,216 color codes. A 1920 × 1080 image at 24 stored bits per pixel contains 6,220,800 bytes of packed pixel data (6.2208 MB), before file-format overhead or compression.