Live Photos Storage Calculator
Work out how much storage your Live Photos really use, how much of that is the motion clip alone, and how many GB (and iCloud+ dollars per year) you would get back by converting them to plain stills.
Live Photos Storage Calculator
Your Live Photos
Count only, not your whole library. Open Settings, then Photos, for a rough total.
Component sizes
The HEIC still portion. Around 5 MB on a modern iPhone.
The MOV video portion, the part you reclaim by converting to a still. Around 8 MB.
iCloud+ plan
Used to estimate whether reclaimed space lets you drop to a cheaper plan.
Reclaim the space you do not need
Once you convert the Live Photos worth keeping, Swipe44 clears the rest. Each card shows a size badge, duplicates are grouped on your phone, and everything you mark goes in one batch delete that reports the space you got back. Nothing is uploaded and iCloud originals are never downloaded.
Sizes are computed in MB and shown in GB using 1 GB = 1024 MB (binary). Apple markets storage in decimal GB, so your device may report a slightly different figure. iCloud+ pricing is 2026 US: 50 GB $0.99/mo, 200 GB $2.99/mo, 2 TB $9.99/mo. Prices vary by region.
How much space do Live Photos really take?
A Live Photo is not one file. It is a full HEIC still plus a short MOV motion clip that records the moment or so around the shot. The still is what you see; the clip is what plays when you press and hold.
On a modern iPhone that works out to roughly 5 MB for the still and about 8 MB for the motion clip, so a typical Live Photo lands near 13 MB. A plain still of the same scene is about 5 MB. That makes a Live Photo roughly 2 to 3 times the size of a normal photo.
The motion clip is the reclaimable part. Keep the still, drop the clip, and you get back the 8 MB or so of video without losing the picture. Across a few thousand photos that difference is measured in gigabytes, which is what the calculator above turns into a number.
What you get back by converting Live Photos to stills
Converting a Live Photo to a still keeps the HEIC image and discards the MOV clip, so the space you reclaim is exactly the motion-clip footprint: your photo count times the average clip size. At 2,000 Live Photos and 8 MB clips, that is about 15.6 GB.
The dollar saving is separate. iCloud+ bills per tier, not per gigabyte, so reclaimed space only saves money when it lets you drop to a smaller plan. The calculator assumes your usage roughly fills your current tier, subtracts the freed space, and checks whether the remainder fits a cheaper tier.
If it does, you see the yearly saving (dropping from 200 GB to 50 GB is $24 a year). If it does not cross a boundary, it says so plainly instead of inventing a per-GB figure. To size your whole library against the tiers, use the iCloud Storage Cost Calculator.
How to convert Live Photos to stills (and stop taking them)
To convert one photo without losing the original, open it in Photos, tap the share button, and choose "Duplicate as Still Photo." That creates a separate still and leaves the Live Photo intact. To strip the motion from a photo directly, open it, tap the "LIVE" badge at the top left, and choose Off.
To stop creating them going forward, tap the Live icon (the concentric circles) in the Camera app to switch it off. Make it stick by opening Settings, Camera, Preserve Settings, and turning on Live Photo so the camera stops resetting to Live each time you open it.
A conversion pass and a cleanup pass work well together: convert the shots worth keeping, then swipe through the rest and delete what you do not need.
Reclaim the space you do not need with Swipe44
Converting handles the motion clips. The bigger wins are usually the duplicates, burst shots, and screenshots sitting alongside them. That is where Swipe44 comes in.
Each card shows a size badge, so you can see which photos are the heavy ones as you go. Swipe right to keep, left to delete, working through Recents, Random, or a single month so it never becomes one giant chore. Duplicates are hashed on-device and grouped for review.
Everything you mark collects in a pending pile, then the whole batch is deleted behind one system confirmation, and the app reports how much space came back. It runs entirely on your phone, with no account and no uploads, and iCloud originals are never downloaded.
Working with video too? The Video Storage Calculator turns minutes of footage into GB, and the iPhone Storage Size Calculator checks whether your library fits a 128, 256, or 512 GB phone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about live photos storage calculator
How much storage does a Live Photo actually use?
A typical Live Photo runs about 13 MB: roughly a 5 MB HEIC still plus an 8 MB MOV motion clip that captures the 1.5 seconds before and after the shot. That is about 2 to 3 times a normal photo. Real sizes land anywhere between 4 and 13 MB depending on resolution, HDR, and how much is moving in the frame.
Do Live Photos take up more space than regular photos?
Yes. A Live Photo carries both a still image and a short video, so it is roughly 2 to 3 times the size of the same shot taken as a plain still. The extra weight is the motion clip. Multiply that across a few thousand photos and it adds up to several gigabytes.
How much space would I save by turning Live Photos into stills?
Converting a Live Photo to a still keeps the photo and discards the motion clip, so the space you save is exactly the motion-clip footprint. At about 8 MB per clip, 2,000 Live Photos hold roughly 15.6 GB of motion clips you could get back. The calculator above shows the figure for your own count.
Does converting a Live Photo to a still delete the video part permanently?
It depends on how you do it. In Apple Photos, "Duplicate as Still Photo" makes a separate still and leaves the original Live Photo intact, so nothing is lost until you delete the original. Turning off Live on an existing photo via Edit removes the motion clip from that photo. Either way, once the motion clip is gone and cleared from Recently Deleted, it does not come back.
Do Live Photos count against my iCloud storage at full size?
Yes. If iCloud Photos is on, both the still and the motion clip sync at full size and count against your quota. That is why a library full of Live Photos can push you onto a bigger, pricier tier. See the iCloud Storage Cost Calculator to check which tier your library needs.
How do I convert all my Live Photos to still photos on iPhone?
Open a photo in the Photos app, tap the "LIVE" badge at the top left, and choose Off to drop the motion clip, or use the share sheet and "Duplicate as Still Photo" to keep both. There is no single button to convert every Live Photo at once, so most people work through them in batches or use the Shortcuts app.
Should I turn off Live Photos to save space going forward?
If you rarely use the motion, yes. In the Camera app, tap the Live icon (the concentric circles) to switch it off for the current session. To keep it off permanently, go to Settings, Camera, Preserve Settings, and turn on Live Photo so the camera stops resetting to Live each time. New shots then save as plain stills at roughly half the size.
Why is my estimate different from the space my iPhone actually reports?
These are averages. Actual Live Photo sizes swing with resolution, HDR, lighting, motion in the scene, and HEIC compression, so a real library is a mix, not one flat number. This calculator uses 1 GB = 1024 MB (binary), while Apple markets storage in decimal GB, which shifts the figure a little too. Treat the output as a close estimate, not an exact reading.