FAQ

Honest answers. Even the unflattering ones.

If something here contradicts another page, this page is the source of truth. Not finding an answer? Discord is faster than email.

The basics

What does delayed do?

delayed sits between OBS and your streaming platforms. Push one RTMP feed in at rtmp://127.0.0.1:1935/live, add your destinations (Twitch, YouTube, Kick, TikTok, custom RTMP), set a delay, and delayed holds the buffer locally and releases it to every platform at the same wall-clock moment.

Will all my platforms actually be in sync?

Yes. delayed releases each chunk to every destination at the same instant. What's left is platform-side ingest jitter (sub-second, outside any tool's control). For snipe defence that's a non-issue.

Does it re-encode my stream?

No. Pure FLV passthrough: bytes in, bytes out. Whatever you set in OBS is what every viewer gets. No quality loss, no extra CPU.

Doesn't a delay just add latency?

Yes, that's the point. It defeats snipers and gives mods a reaction window. When you're done with the sensitive part, hit Skip and delayed flushes the buffer so you're back to live.

Will viewers notice?

Chat will be 30–90s behind your gameplay. For ranked or competitive streams, viewers expect it. For Just Chatting, you'll need to read chat with the offset in mind.

Why not just use OBS's built-in stream delay?

OBS's stream delay only applies to one destination. If you're multistreaming, each platform sees a different delay, or you can't multistream from native OBS at all. delayed applies the same delay to every destination, in sync.

Who's behind delayed?

One person: Yusuf D., a streamer / developer based in Turkey. Twitter: @hekliii. delayed exists because I got sniped enough times on multistream to want a real fix instead of a cloud workaround.

Payments go through Polar.sh as Merchant of Record. They issue the receipt, handle VAT, and are the legal counterparty. Refund disputes have two paths: email me at support@delayed.stream, or escalate via Polar. Full legal identity is at /legal.

This isn't a VC-funded SaaS. There's no roadmap committee, no growth team, no investors waiting for a pivot. The trade-off: development is fast and direct, but it's just me, so response times are best-effort (usually under a day on Discord, longer on email).

Why not Restream or another cloud multistream service?

Three things they can't do that delayed does:

  • Sync the delay across destinations. Cloud relays forward each platform independently, so the fastest mirror still wins, snipers still win.
  • Avoid re-encoding. Cloud relays have to re-encode to fan out. delayed is pure passthrough, no quality loss.
  • Stay off your stream. Cloud services see everything. delayed runs on your PC; we have no relay, no transcoder, no analytics.

One trade-off: cloud relays do the upload-bandwidth heavy lifting for you. delayed needs your connection to handle one outbound stream per destination (see how much you'll need).

Setup

Which OS?

Windows 10 and 11 only.

Which encoders work with it?

Anything that pushes RTMP: OBS Studio, Streamlabs Desktop, vMix, XSplit, FFmpeg. If it has a custom RTMP server field, it works.

How do I point OBS at delayed?

OBS → Settings → Stream. Service: Custom..., Server: rtmp://127.0.0.1:1935/live, Stream Key: anything. Then add your real stream keys in delayed's Streams panel.

OBS says "No config URL available for the current service". What now?

This is an OBS-side error, not a delayed problem. Two fixes, in order:

  1. Disable Multitrack Video (a.k.a. Enhanced Broadcasting) in OBS → Settings → Stream. It's a Twitch-specific feature that fetches a config URL from Twitch even when Service is set to Custom, and it conflicts with any custom RTMP server.
  2. Clear any leftover Twitch / YouTube stream key from the Stream Key field. If you previously streamed direct to a platform, the old key can stick around in the profile and trigger the same error.

After that, your Stream settings should read: Service Custom..., Server rtmp://127.0.0.1:1935/live, Stream Key whatever delayed's mini player shows. Click Apply, then Start Streaming.

Do I need TikTok Live Studio?

No. delayed pushes RTMP straight to TikTok's ingest. TikTok Live access (1k followers or a grant from TikTok) is still required (that's TikTok's restriction, not ours).

How much RAM does it use?

About 200 MB for a typical setup (default 60s buffer at 8 Mbps, one destination). Tunable up or down (full numbers in the RAM table). CPU stays near zero; the buffer is just memory copies.

What's the protective buffer?

It's a small reserve of recent stream content kept in memory so changing your delay (or skipping to live) is instant: no cut, no freeze, no rebuild. Default is 60 seconds; tunable up to 5 minutes.

One thing worth knowing: the buffer cap is your RAM cap. A 60s buffer with a 30s delay still uses 60s of RAM, because the delay setting is just where you sit within the buffer. The Settings card shows live numbers from your actual stream.

Does multistream multiply my RAM use?

No. The buffer is shared, so three destinations use the same memory as one. Roughly 250 MB total for a typical 3-destination setup at 8 Mbps with the default 60s buffer.

What does scale with destinations is your upload bandwidth (see how much you'll need).

Streaming

What if delayed crashes mid-stream?

Your destinations disconnect, same as if OBS crashed. Restart delayed and restart the stream. There's no cloud queue, which also means no third-party service can drop your stream when their servers go down.

Can I delay one destination but leave others live?

No. The whole point is a synced delay; uneven delays between platforms don't help against snipers. It's all or nothing.

Can I add a custom RTMP destination?

Yes. Paste any RTMP/RTMPS URL and key. Owncast, a personal server, a Restream relay: all work.

Does it support SRT outputs?

Not in v1. RTMP/RTMPS only.

How much upload bandwidth do I need for multistream?

delayed pushes one independent RTMP connection per destination, so upload scales linearly with destination count. Plan for your OBS bitrate × number of destinations, plus ~25% headroom for TCP retransmits.

DESTINATIONS @ 6 Mbps @ 8 Mbps @ 12 Mbps
1~7.5 Mbps~10 Mbps~15 Mbps
2~15 Mbps~20 Mbps~30 Mbps
3~22 Mbps~30 Mbps~45 Mbps
4~30 Mbps~40 Mbps~60 Mbps

Symmetric fibre handles 4-way multistream at 12 Mbps comfortably. Asymmetric / cable connections are typically the bottleneck for 3+ destinations at high bitrate.

How do I protect my Twitch VODs from DMCA strikes when using delayed?

Enable VOD Track on your Twitch destination. When active, delayed injects a silent second audio track alongside your live audio. Twitch records track 2 in VODs, so your VODs contain silence instead of your music — live viewers still hear everything normally.

To enable: edit your Twitch destination in the Streams tab, check VOD Track (DMCA Protection), and save. The destination card will show a VOD TRACK badge. Restart the stream for it to take effect.

Your live audio is copied at zero CPU cost. The silent track is generated from a null source at 32 kbps — negligible overhead. See the setup guide for screenshots.

What happens when I change the delay mid-stream?

Nothing visible to viewers: no cut to live, no freeze, no rebuild. The protective buffer holds the last N seconds of your stream, so changing your delay is just a shift within that buffer. Skip to Live works the same way: instant, no interruption.

The only exception: setting a delay larger than your buffer (e.g. 4-min delay with a 60s buffer). Then it falls back to the brief build behavior other tools use. Bump your buffer if you want longer delays to be seamless too.

Is there a Stream Deck plugin?

Yes. Free download from the download page. Seven actions: Skip to Live, three preset delays (15s / 30s / 60s), Custom Delay (configurable seconds), Status (read-only), and Refresh Connection.

What's the maximum delay, and how much RAM does each protective-buffer setting use?

The cap is 5 minutes (300 seconds) on both delay and protective buffer. Tournament rules typically run 3–5 min, snipe defence 60–180s, so the cap covers everything with margin. It also exists so a typo'd custom value can't accidentally eat several gigabytes.

Buffer math: RAM per second = bitrate ÷ 8. At 8 Mbps that's ~1 MB/s. The numbers below include ~120 MB baseline for the app (Tauri WebView + Rust runtime). They scale with the protective-buffer setting, not your delay (see the protective-buffer Q for why).

BUFFER @ 6 Mbps @ 8 Mbps @ 12 Mbps
Off (0s)~120 MB~120 MB~120 MB
15s~131 MB~135 MB~143 MB
30s~143 MB~151 MB~166 MB
60s (default)~166 MB~181 MB~212 MB
90s~189 MB~212 MB~258 MB
120s~212 MB~243 MB~304 MB
180s~258 MB~304 MB~395 MB
240s ⚠~304 MB~365 MB~487 MB
300s (max) 🛑~349 MB~426 MB~579 MB

Add ~20–30 MB per active destination for ffmpeg. So 3 destinations at 8 Mbps with the default 60s buffer → ~250 MB total. Comfortably fits any modern streaming PC. CPU stays low; the buffer is just memory copies, no codec work.

The Settings card shows live numbers from your actual stream bitrate, not the table assumptions.

Pricing & billing

What does it cost?

€4.50/month, €45/year, or €160 lifetime. Prices in EUR. VAT added at checkout where applicable.

What's included in "lifetime"?

All v1.x updates for as long as v1 is the current version. No subscriptions, no renewals.

Is there a free trial?

Yes. Install the app and you get a 30-day free trial automatically, no account or payment required. The trial is tied to your machine and survives reinstalls. After 30 days you'll need a license key to keep streaming.

Refund policy?

14 days from purchase, no questions asked, on every plan including lifetime. Monthly subs cancel at the next billing cycle after 14 days. Yearly subs are non-refundable after 14 days but stay active until the term ends. The 30-day in-app trial is on top of this, so you can sample the app at no cost before the refund clock starts.

How many machines per license?

One active install at a time. To move to a new PC, deactivate the old install in your account first.

Can I switch from monthly to lifetime?

Yes. Email support@delayed.stream and we'll credit your most recent month's payment toward the lifetime price.

Privacy & data

Does my stream go through your servers?

No. delayed runs entirely on your PC. Your stream goes from your machine directly to Twitch / YouTube / Kick / TikTok's ingest. We have no relay, no cloud buffer, no transcoder. We never see your video.

Are my stream keys safe?

Stored locally in Windows Credential Manager. They never leave your PC.

What data do you collect?

Your email (for the license) and billing details (handled by our payment provider). That's it. No stream analytics, no game tracking.

Still have questions? Ask in Discord.

Or just download it and find out. Free trial on subs, 14-day refund on every plan.

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