Best OBS Settings for Twitch and YouTube Streaming

OBS Studio is a free and extremely powerful program for live streaming and video recording. It has long become a standard tool for streamers, bloggers, teachers, and anyone working with video content. In this guide, we will break down the OBS Studio interface, the main stream settings, and the best parameters for comfortable streaming on Twitch and YouTube.

OBS Studio remains one of the most popular and powerful free tools for streaming. The program lets you broadcast to one platform or stream to several platforms at the same time. For comfortable 1080p60 streaming, we recommend a stable internet connection with at least 8–10 Mbps upload speed, as well as a modern processor or a graphics card with hardware encoding.

You can download the latest version of OBS Studio from the official website or from the Steam digital store. After installation, launch the program and complete the Auto-Configuration Wizard. It will help select initial settings based on your hardware.

Before setting up OBS for streaming, it is useful to understand the program’s basic interface. This will help you build scenes faster, connect sources, configure audio, and avoid unnecessary mistakes before your first stream.

Correct OBS settings directly affect stream quality, broadcast stability, and computer load. First, you should configure resolution, FPS, encoder, bitrate, and audio settings according to your hardware and internet speed.

In the Output section, switch Output Mode from Simple to Advanced. On the Streaming tab, choose an encoder:

For standard streams, a bitrate of 6000 Kbps is recommended. This is the limit for most Twitch streamers, although partners may sometimes have access to higher bitrates. Set Rate Control to CBR and Keyframe Interval to 2 seconds. For the encoder preset, use Slow or Slower for NVENC, and Fast or Faster for x264. In the audio settings, set the sample rate to 48 kHz and the audio bitrate to 160 Kbps.

If you are not sure exactly how to set stream resolution and bitrate for different encoders, use the Twitch table from the streaming guide. It will show which format, frame rate, and bitrate you should use for each resolution.

Scenes are the foundation of working in OBS. Each scene is a separate frame or layout for your stream: a set of image sources, captures, text elements, and other items shown on screen at the same time. By switching between scenes, you instantly change what viewers see. For example, you can move from the starting screen to gameplay, then to Just Chatting, and then to a Be Right Back screen.

Before creating your first stream, it is better to plan your scene set in advance. Usually, streamers create separate scenes for the starting screen, main gameplay, camera chat mode, pause screen, and final outro.

At the bottom of the OBS window, you will find the Scenes panel. To add a new scene, click the plus icon in this panel, choose a clear name, such as Start, Game, Just Chatting, BRB, or End, and confirm it. We recommend creating 5–8 main scenes for comfortable streaming:

You can duplicate existing scenes by right-clicking and selecting Duplicate, which lets you quickly create variations. For convenience, use Scene Collections in the top menu. This lets you store different scene sets for different types of content, such as games, IRL streams, educational streams, and more.

After creating scenes, you need to add OBS sources. These are responsible for the picture, sound, and visual design of your stream. Depending on the broadcast format, this may be a game capture, window capture, display capture, browser source, camera, or audio device.

Go to the Sources panel at the bottom and click the plus icon. OBS will offer many different source types that you can broadcast:

Sources are arranged in layers. The higher a source is in the list, the closer it is to the viewer, so upper sources cover lower ones. Drag sources with the mouse to change their order. In the preview window, select a source to change its size, position, or rotation.

Click the plus icon in the Sources panel and choose Window Capture, then select the required game window and click OK. If needed, add filters or set up chroma key using the Filters option above the source interface.

Many streamers use ready-made or custom overlays. These are image sets that include the basic elements of each scene, such as the stream frame, background, webcam border, tabs with social media links, and other widgets. Add them to the scene as images and arrange them however you like. A good overlay often makes a stream look much more polished.

For Twitch chat, open the chat in your browser, copy the URL of the pop-out version, and open Docks. Select Custom Browser Docks and paste the link into the right column. You can set up YouTube chat in the same way.

Before starting a stream, you need to connect OBS to the required platform. The easiest way to connect Twitch or YouTube is through built-in authorization, but you can also enter the stream key manually.

For Twitch, open OBS settings in the lower-right corner, select the Stream tab, choose Twitch as the service, and click Connect Account. Log in through your browser. This is the most convenient method. Alternatively, you can manually paste your stream key from the Twitch dashboard under Settings — Channel — Stream Key.

For YouTube, select YouTube as the service in the same tab and connect your account. If you plan to stream to both platforms at the same time, it is more convenient to use the Multiple RTMP Outputs plugin, which can be downloaded from GitHub, or services such as Restream.io.

If you want to stream to Twitch, YouTube, and other platforms at the same time, you can set up multistreaming through RTMP in OBS. This is usually done with the Multiple RTMP Outputs plugin, which adds several simultaneous outputs from one program.

Multiple RTMP Outputs is a popular free plugin that lets you broadcast live to several platforms at the same time, including Twitch, YouTube, Kick, Trovo, VK Play, and any other RTMP-compatible service, from a single OBS instance without using third-party services.

How to install the plugin:

After installation, launch OBS. The plugin should appear automatically.

To open the plugin control panel, go to Docks — Multiple Output or Multiple RTMP Output. The panel usually appears at the top of the OBS window, but you can drag it and dock it anywhere you like.

It is best to set the main OBS output under Settings — Output — Streaming to YouTube RTMPS. Additional outputs will copy this stream, which greatly reduces CPU and GPU load.

To add a new streaming platform, click Add New Output in the Multiple Output panel and fill in the fields:

We recommend leaving the video and audio settings as they are, meaning they should use the main OBS settings. This lets you use the same encoder and significantly reduces the load. If needed, you can select specific audio tracks. Check the option to synchronize launch with the main stream. This way, additional streams will start automatically together with the main one. Repeat this for every platform you want to stream to.

To start streaming, click Start Streaming, then click Start next to each additional output.