How Much Storage Do Live Photos Use on iPhone?

Jun 10, 2026

A Live Photo is not one file. It is a still image (HEIC) plus a roughly three-second video clip (a .mov file) saved together, so every Live Photo takes up significantly more storage than the same shot taken as a regular still. Exactly how much extra depends on the scene, but the video clip is often comparable in size to the photo itself. Across a library with thousands of Live Photos, that adds up to gigabytes.

What a Live Photo actually is

When Live Photos is on, your iPhone records what happens 1.5 seconds before and 1.5 seconds after you press the shutter. The result is two files stored as a pair:

• The still image, usually a HEIC file (or JPEG on older settings)
• A short video clip with audio, saved as a .mov file in HEVC format

Photos shows them as a single item, which is why most people never realize they are paying double for each shot. The video does not appear separately in your library, but it sits on your storage all the same.

How much extra storage do they use?

Apple does not publish an exact figure, and the real answer varies shot by shot. A static scene compresses well, so the clip stays small. A busy scene with motion and sound produces a larger clip, sometimes bigger than the still image it is attached to.

You can check your own numbers in seconds. Open any Live Photo in the Photos app and tap the info button (the small "i") or swipe up. The info panel shows the file size of the photo. Compare a Live Photo against a regular still taken in the same place and you will see the gap for yourself.

The bigger issue is volume. Live Photos has been on by default since the iPhone 6s, so if you never touched the setting, nearly every photo you have taken for years carries a hidden video clip. Apple does not publish the clip's size, but across ten thousand photos those clips add up to gigabytes of footage you have probably never watched. You can check your own ratio with the file-size trick above. If your iPhone storage is full because of photos, Live Photos are often a quiet part of the reason.

How to turn off Live Photos for new shots

Two steps, because the Camera app likes to turn it back on:

1. Open Camera, tap the camera controls button, then tap the Live Photo button. A slash through the icon means it is off.
2. Go to Settings > Camera > Preserve Settings and turn on the Live Photo switch.

Without step two, the Camera app re-enables Live Photos the next time you open it. Preserve Settings keeps whatever state you left it in, so turn Live off first, then close the app.

How to remove Live from photos you already took

There are two ways, and they are not equal.

Edit > Live off (does not free space)

Open a Live Photo, tap Edit, then tap the LIVE button at the top to turn it off. This disables the effect, but it is a reversible edit. The video clip stays on your device so you can turn Live back on later. Useful if you just dislike the animation, useless if you want the storage back.

Duplicate as Still Photo (frees space)

To actually drop the video clip:

1. In Photos, find your Live Photos in one place: scroll to Media Types and tap Live Photos.
2. Open one, tap the three-dot menu, and choose Duplicate as Still Photo.
3. Delete the original Live Photo, then empty Recently Deleted.

The duplicate keeps only the still image. Deleting the original removes the video clip with it. Deleted items sit in Recently Deleted for 30 days before the space comes back, so empty that album when you finish.

Should you turn Live Photos off?

Not necessarily for everything. Live Photos earn their space for moments with motion: kids, pets, candid scenes where the seconds around the shutter matter. They waste space on receipts, whiteboards, documents, and the hundred routine shots where nothing moves. A reasonable middle ground is to keep Live off by default and tap it on for the moments that deserve it.

Worth knowing before you convert everything: the video clip is also where Live Photo features live. Long-press playback, the Loop and Bounce effects, and picking a different key photo all depend on it. Once you duplicate as a still and delete the original, those are gone for that photo. For shots you genuinely treasure, keep the Live version. For the other 95 percent of your library, the still is all you will ever look at.

One more thing if you use iCloud Photos: Live Photos sync at full size, video clip included. Trimming them does not just free space on your iPhone, it slows down how fast you burn through your iCloud plan too.

Live Photos are only part of the problem

If you are clearing space, Live Photos sit alongside the usual suspects: duplicate photos, burst shots, and old screenshots you saved once and never opened again. Those are easier wins because deleting them loses nothing you care about. Snapsift finds duplicates, near-identical shots, screenshots, and blurry photos on-device, with nothing uploaded anywhere, and the free plan covers 15 deletions a month. Pair that with turning Live Photos off and your library stops growing twice as fast as it should.

FAQ

Do Live Photos take up twice as much space?

There is no fixed ratio. A Live Photo stores a still image plus a roughly three-second video, and the video size depends on motion in the scene. In some cases the clip is smaller than the still, in others it is bigger. The reliable answer is that every Live Photo costs noticeably more than the same shot as a regular photo.

Does turning off the Live effect free up storage?

No. Tapping Edit and turning LIVE off only hides the effect, and the video clip stays on your device so the edit can be reversed. To reclaim the space, use Duplicate as Still Photo, delete the original Live Photo, and empty Recently Deleted.

How do I find all my Live Photos in one place?

In the Photos app, scroll to the Media Types section and tap Live Photos. That album lists every Live Photo in your library so you can review and convert them in one pass.