Kick Ingest, Stream Key and Bitrate: What to Use (2026)

The short answer

The Kick ingest is the server your video is sent to. You get its address (the Stream URL, which Kick's dashboard labels Server) and your Stream Key from your Kick dashboard, and you paste both into your streaming software. Kick accepts up to 8,000 kbps, H.264 only, constant bitrate (CBR), at up to 1920x1080 and 60 fps, with a 2 second keyframe interval.

Kick's help center does not publish a single recommended bitrate for 1080p. It gives a range of 1,000 to 8,000 kbps and tells you to lower the bitrate in steps of 1,000 kbps if the stream stutters. This page follows that: every number below is Kick's, and where Kick gives no number, we say so. Checked against Kick's help center article "How to stream on Kick.com" (dated May 22, 2026) on October 21, 2026.

What "ingest" means on Kick

Ingest is a general streaming term, not a Kick setting name. It means the point where a platform receives your stream. On Kick that point is the Stream URL (Server) and Stream Key pair shown in your Kick dashboard. The URL tells your software where to send video. The key tells Kick which channel it belongs to.

Treat the key like a password. Anyone who has it can stream to your channel. If it leaks, click Reset in the Kick dashboard, then paste the new key into your streaming software. The old one stops working.

Copy yours from the Kick dashboard instead of using a URL from a forum post or video. Kick's help center shows a LiveU example that ends in :443/app, and says LiveU users append that to their stream URL.

Find your Stream URL and Stream Key

Open your Kick dashboard and go to Channel, then Stream URL and Key. Copy the Server (Stream URL) and the Stream Key. In OBS Studio, open File, then Settings, then Stream. Set Service to Custom, paste the server into Server and the key into Stream Key, then press Apply.

Set a stream title and category in the dashboard before you go live. Kick's help notes the livestream may not start correctly without them.

Choosing a bitrate when Kick gives a range

Because Kick sets a ceiling and not a target, the right number is the highest one your connection holds for the whole stream. Start below the ceiling, watch your own channel for stutter, and move in 1,000 kbps steps, which is the method Kick's help describes.

Two things follow from that. First, 8,000 kbps is a limit, not a goal: a bitrate your upload cannot sustain looks worse than a lower one that holds. Second, Kick's numbers apply to what reaches Kick. If you stream from a phone, the connection between the phone and your encoder is a separate decision; see our guide to the best bitrate for IRL streaming for that.

Add Kick to Streamable

With Streamable (streamable.run), a cloud-hosted OBS service, you enter the Kick details once in the cloud and not on every device. Go to Destinations while signed in, click Add Destination, enter a Name and choose Kick as the Platform. Then either click Login with Kick, or enable Manual, enter your Stream URL and Stream Key, and click Add.

Before going live, confirm the destination is enabled, start your server, check the ingest preview, then start the destination from the Dashboard. Cloud OBS sends the finished stream to Kick, so the H.264, CBR and 8,000 kbps limits above apply to your OBS output settings.

Streamable can send to Kick and to other destinations, such as Twitch, YouTube or a custom RTMP server, from one stream. Limits depend on your plan; see https://streamable.run/pricing.

When bitrate drops on an IRL stream

On a walking stream the weak link is usually the phone's cellular connection, not Kick. A falling bitrate on the way into the server shows up as blocky video or a frozen picture. Kick's 8,000 kbps ceiling does not change that.

If you stream through Streamable, the Ingest Manager panel on the Dashboard shows the bitrate arriving from your phone, so you can tell a weak signal from a Kick-side problem. If the incoming bitrate is falling, lower the bitrate in your mobile app, which is our suggested first step and not a Kick rule, and wait for it to settle before changing anything else. If the feed stops, switch Cloud OBS to a fallback scene so viewers see a holding screen instead of a dead channel.

If the incoming bitrate looks healthy but viewers on Kick see stutter, the problem is on the output side. Follow Kick's guidance: lower the OBS output bitrate in 1,000 kbps steps.