How to Record While Streaming in OBS Studio

Recording a high-quality local copy of your live broadcast in OBS Studio is essential for backup purposes, video editing, or uploading content to other platforms. This guide provides a straightforward, step-by-step walkthrough on how to configure OBS Studio to automatically or manually record your stream in high definition without sacrificing your live stream’s performance.

Step 1: Enable Automatic Recording

To ensure you never forget to save a copy of your broadcast, you can configure OBS Studio to start recording automatically the moment you go live.

  1. Open OBS Studio.
  2. Click on Settings in the bottom-right Controls panel (or go to File > Settings).
  3. Select the General tab from the left sidebar.
  4. Locate the Output section.
  5. Check the box next to “Automatically record when streaming”.
  6. (Optional) Check “Keep recording when stream stops” if you want to continue capturing footage after your live broadcast ends.
  7. Click Apply.

Step 2: Configure Your Recording Settings

To get the best video quality, you should separate your recording settings from your streaming settings. This allows you to stream at a lower bitrate while saving a pristine, high-quality version of your video locally.

  1. In the Settings menu, click on the Output tab.
  2. At the top of the menu, change the Output Mode dropdown from Simple to Advanced.
  3. Click on the Recording tab.
  4. Set your Recording Path by clicking Browse and choosing the folder where you want your video files to be saved.
  5. Set your Recording Format to mkv or fragmented mp4. These formats are crash-resistant, meaning your video will not be corrupted if OBS or your computer crashes mid-stream.
  6. Set the Video Encoder to a hardware encoder (such as NVIDIA NVENC or AMD HW) to offload the processing from your CPU.
  7. Set the Rate Control to CQP (or CRF if using an x264 CPU encoder).
  8. Set the CQ Level (or CRF value) between 15 and 23. Lower numbers mean higher quality but larger file sizes. A value of 20 is a good balance for most creators.
  9. Click Apply and then OK.

Step 3: Start Recording Manually (Alternative)

If you chose not to enable automatic recording in Step 1, you can control your recordings manually from the main OBS interface.

  1. Click Start Streaming in the Controls panel to go live.
  2. Click Start Recording directly below it to begin saving your local file.
  3. You can click Stop Recording at any time during the broadcast without interrupting your live stream.