# Riverside Recording: How Local Tracks, Roles and Download Hours Work > How Riverside records guests locally, which browsers and roles it needs, and why track downloads cap at 15, 20 or 25 h a month on Pro, Grow and Webinar. _Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/riverside-recording — The Professional's Toolkit · updated October 2026_ --- Riverside records every participant **locally on their own device** and uploads those files during and after the session, so a shaky connection degrades the live call but not the tracks you edit.[1] Recording itself is unlimited on every plan. The real limit sits elsewhere: downloading a separate track for each person is capped at 15 hours a month on Pro, 20 on Grow and 25 on Webinar, with a one-off 2 hours on Free and no cap on Business. Plan around that number. Get the browser, the studio settings and the roles right first, and the rest of a session is routine. **15 h** — Separate-track download hours a month on Riverside Pro (20 on Grow, 25 on Webinar), reset monthly with no rollover. - **100** — Participants per session, 9 on screen - **6 h** — Session auto-ends while someone is in the studio - **720p** — Max cloud backup quality, kept 3 months ## What the studio actually captures Every session produces three kinds of files. The **high-quality tracks** are recorded on each device: one video and one audio file per person, up to 4K video and 44.1 or 48 kHz audio, at a default target video bit rate of 7 Mbps that some Business plans can raise to 10 or 15 Mbps through the customer success manager. Edits and clips come later, from the editor. The third kind is the cloud recording: one per participant plus a combined track, ready the moment the call ends. Raw audio downloads as uncompressed 16-bit WAV, or as MP3 at 64 kb/s, about a tenth of the size. The cloud recording is your safety net, not your master. It tops out at 720p, can use a variable frame rate, always has echo cancellation applied, and is deleted permanently three months after it is generated. Its job is to cover gaps: when a guest left early and only a partial high-quality track exists, you can re-upload the cloud file into the editor. Producers never appear in it. Audio-only sessions still produce separate high-quality audio tracks, plus video of any shared media and a backup cloud recording. Keep your own copies. ## Set up the computer and the studio first Recording happens on each participant's machine, so their hardware matters as much as yours. Riverside supports Chrome, Edge and Safari 18.2 or newer.[2] Firefox, Brave, Arc, Opera, Vivaldi and all mobile browsers are out, and so are Linux, ChromeOS, Chromebooks and remote-desktop sessions. The minimum is macOS Big Sur or Windows 7. Riverside recommends 8 or more physical cores for video and 4 for audio-only, at least 10 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up, and 5 GB of free browser storage. Safari works, with gaps. It cannot run async or in-person recordings, choose a speaker output device or apply virtual backgrounds, and its screen shares are cloud-only, so they may look soft. Riverside itself recommends Chrome, Edge or the Mac app for the most stable recording; put that in your guest invite. The defaults are conservative. A new studio records in **720p and 44.1 kHz**. Switch resolution to Advanced for 1080p or 4K, where the camera supports it, and set audio to 48 kHz; both need Pro or a higher plan, and Pro costs $35 a month billed monthly or $24 a month billed annually.[3] Set the transcription language before you record, since each recording gets one studio language. If you try this on the 14-day trial, note that it needs a card and charges automatically on day 15; our [Riverside pricing guide](/articles/riverside-pricing) covers the billing rules. > 💡 **Switch the studio to Advanced:** New studios record in 720p and 44.1 kHz. On Pro and up, set Advanced resolution and 48 kHz before the first guest joins. ## Invite people and give them the right role Send the reusable studio link. It never expires and opens the whole studio at any time, while the help pages disagree on how long emailed invites stay valid. Guests need no account and no install. A session can hold up to **100 participants, each on an individual track**, with 9 shown on screen at once, and everyone is recorded whether visible or not. Async recording, where people record answers to up to 10 prompts from one link on their own schedule, exists only on some Business plans through the customer success manager. Roles decide who gets recorded and who controls the session. Only one person can be the host, and only the host starts the recording; a co-host joins as a guest. Producers are not recorded unless they turn on their camera, and anything they share on screen or on the Media Board is recorded as its own track. They have no cloud track, and you can add any number. Internal producers, team members with host access, can start and stop recordings and need Grow, Webinar or Business. Inviting outside producers without an account is Business only. Up to 100 audience members can watch on every plan, unrecorded, and those watching in Riverside on a computer can ask to call in from Chrome or Edge. The physical setup in a shared room is the classic mistake. Two people sharing one microphone, or one device with the same inputs, end up on a single track, so give each speaker a mic if you want to edit them apart. In hybrid sessions, in-room participants must wear headphones because speakers are disabled to stop echo. Audio interfaces need care too: in the browser studio only the first two channels are detected, Riverside records in mono, and a two-channel signal averaged down arrives about 6 dB quieter. > 💡 **Send the reusable studio link:** The direct studio link never expires, while the help pages disagree on how long emailed invites last. ## During the session: what keeps the tracks safe The host on every plan, and producers from Grow up, can admit waiting guests from the lobby one by one or all at once, and can mute or remove participants. A remote mute is total: a muted participant records no audio on their high-quality track. If the host loses internet, the recording keeps going. If a guest drops, the others continue, and the rejoin produces more than one downloadable track for that guest, which you join up in the editor. On Pro and up the host also gets a teleprompter; sharing it with guests is Business only. Length and uploads are the other controls. **Sessions end automatically after 6 hours** while someone is still in the studio, and Riverside recommends staying under 4, so split a long day into takes. Don't skip the upload. Guests must keep the tab or app open after you stop until the upload confirmation appears, and anyone who leaves early should keep the page open or rejoin. Never clear browser site data while tracks are pending, because that deletes local files not yet uploaded. The Mac app sidesteps the cache problem. > ⚠ **Never clear the browser cache early:** Clearing site data before uploads finish deletes the local tracks that have not uploaded yet. ## Downloads and the monthly hours cap Unlimited recording is not unlimited separate tracks. Individual-track download works only while the account has used less than its download hours for the month.[4] Hours reset monthly with no rollover, they count session length rather than the number of people, and live streams count toward them. Deleting a recording gives nothing back. Over the cap you can still record, edit and export edits; only per-person track downloads, including through share links, wait for the next cycle or an upgrade. Sizing it is simple. By our arithmetic, a weekly 90-minute interview uses 6 hours in a four-session month and 7.5 hours in a five-session month, so Pro's 15 hours covers ten such sessions. A second weekly show of the same length, or regular live streams on Grow, is where the 15 or 20 hours start to run short. Download the tracks you need inside the cycle in which you recorded them. Know what the files look like before you hand them to an outside editor. Only video recorded in a computer browser comes with a constant frame rate and aligned tracks. Mac app and mobile recordings produce raw tracks only, without alignment padding, and mobile video uses a variable frame rate, so expect to line those tracks up by hand. Inside Riverside's own [editor](/articles/riverside-editor) the alignment is handled for you. > ⚠ **Deleting recordings frees no hours:** Removing a recording does not restore the month's separate-track download hours on Pro, Grow or Webinar. ## Recording on a Mac or a phone The Mac app needs Apple Silicon and macOS 15 Sequoia or later, with M1 or above for video, and it runs on all plans. Its headline is **in-person multicam** on Pro and up: up to 8 cameras and microphones on one Mac. When the studio is set to 4K, the app asks for a 5-minute setup test first. If the Mac fails, drop to 1080p, lower the frame rate to 24 fps or remove a camera. Screen-share tracks from the Mac app can reach 4K but carry no system audio. The iOS and Android apps offer Together, Solo, Audio and Live modes, and a phone is the only way to record portrait video, since desktop has no 9:16 setting. There is no offline recording. Close the app before the upload finishes and the recording stays on the device and resumes later; don't uninstall or log out first. The app takes one external device at a time, so a mic plus wired headphones needs a TRRS splitter. A phone can also be a second camera angle: video only, with no audio track and no cloud copy. ## FAQ **What frame rate do Riverside recordings use?** Participant tracks recorded on a computer default to 24 FPS. Business plans can set the studio to 25 or 29.97 FPS, but editor exports are always 24 FPS. **Can I record in several Riverside studios at the same time?** Business accounts can run sessions in multiple studios at once, but each session needs a different host or director. **How do I check a guest's camera before recording?** Riverside's video tester checks resolution, frame rate and camera connection and gives a downloadable zip with a test recording and diagnostics. The studio lobby also lets everyone test devices manually before entering. **Can Riverside use my recordings to train its AI?** Yes. The Privacy Policy revised in June 2026 and the Terms of October 2026 let Riverside train its own AI models on recordings, transcripts and AI prompts; only Business customers can opt out, by written agreement. ## The bottom line Riverside's recording model is sound: local tracks per person, uploaded progressively, with a 720p cloud copy as insurance. Most failures come from setup, not the software. Use Chrome, Edge or the Mac app, switch the studio to Advanced and 48 kHz on Pro or above, give every speaker a mic, and keep every tab open until the upload confirms. Then watch the one number that actually limits you, the monthly separate-track download hours, and pull your tracks before the cycle resets. ## Sources [1] Riverside Help: About high quality tracks — https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/5260109014045-About-high-quality-tracks (2026-10) [2] Riverside Help: System requirements and supported browsers — https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/5252134218013-System-requirements-and-supported-browsers (2026-10) [3] Plans & Pricing — https://riverside.com/pricing (2026-10) [4] Riverside Help: Download high quality tracks — https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/5260432295581-Download-high-quality-tracks (2026-10) [5] Riverside Help Center — https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us [6] Riverside Terms and Conditions — https://riverside.com/terms-conditions [7] G2, Riverside reviews — https://www.g2.com/products/riverside/reviews