CALCULATOR
How long will my file take?
Type the size of your file. The estimate uses the same formulas the Kionel app shows before a transfer starts, so the number here is the number you will see there.
The estimate appears here.
Common sizes
The table is calculated in your browser.
What the estimate assumes
- These are estimates, not device measurements. Camera, screen, distance and light change the result; the app measures the real rate while it runs.
- Text shrinks before sending. The estimate assumes a text file shrinks four times; CSV and instrument logs often shrink more. PDF, images and ZIP files are already compressed and do not shrink.
- Live reading shows 30 codes a second, but a phone decodes far fewer from a live picture. The estimate assumes about 7 a second, set from our one measurement below, and a quarter of those missed. That is why recording is usually faster for anything over a few hundred kilobytes.
- Recording shows 20 dense codes a second and assumes the video yields readable codes from 60% of them.
- The colour code carries slightly less per image than the densest QR code and shows 15 a second, so on paper it is not faster. Its strength is that far more of its images are read from a real, slightly blurred phone video; the estimate still assumes 60% to stay cautious.
- Every estimate includes about 10% extra for the fountain code, a safety margin, and a few seconds to start.
What we have measured
On one phone, a 117 KB file arrived in 10 to 24 seconds read live, and in about 7 seconds of screen recording. We publish device measurements as we collect them; until then, the calculator is the honest answer.
If your file is larger than a few megabytes, a screen is the wrong tool unless there is no other permitted route: see how many codes a file needs.