Facebook Live stream key and RTMPS URL - and the 8-hour cap
Where Facebook hands you the two values, why the key you used last week may be dead, and the limit that decides whether a 24/7 Facebook stream is possible at all.
Facebook gives you a server URL and a stream key in Live Producer, and unlike YouTube it does not publish one address for everybody: the pair is created with the broadcast. It also has an option most guides skip - a persistent stream key, which is the difference between reconfiguring your encoder every time and setting it once.
The number that matters most here is not in the encoder settings at all. Facebook ends a live broadcast after 8 hours, automatically, with no grace period. A round-the-clock Facebook channel is therefore not one long stream; it is a stream that has to come back three times a day.
Where to find your Facebook stream key
Two things have to be true before the fields even appear: the account has to be old enough, and it has to have an audience.
Check the account is allowed to go live
Meta added eligibility requirements on 10 June 2024, and they are enforced at the API level.
- The Facebook account must be at least 60 days old.
- The Page, or the profile in professional mode, needs at least 100 followers.
- To go live from a Page you need Facebook access, or content-creation task access, on it.
- If you are refused, the API returns error
1363120for the age rule and1363144for the follower rule - which is how you tell the two apart.
Create the broadcast in Live Producer
The stream key is created together with the broadcast, not stored on the account.
- Open facebook.com/live/create and choose where the broadcast should appear.
- Under Select video source, pick Streaming software.
- In Advanced settings, switch on Persistent stream key if you want to reuse the key later.
- Copy the server URL and the stream key that Facebook then shows.
Paste them into the encoder, over RTMPS
Facebook is configured as a custom RTMP destination, with TLS switched on.
- In OBS: Settings → Stream → Service Custom….
- Server takes the URL, Stream Key takes the key on its own.
- Facebook's instructions say to turn on the secure connection (RTMPS) if your software supports it - and every current encoder does.
- Where a tool gives you a single field, Facebook's API docs split the value as server
rtmps://rtmp-api.facebook.com/rtmp/and key - everything after/rtmp/.
Match Facebook's published settings
Facebook's recommended profile is more conservative than YouTube's or Twitch's.
- 1080p at 30 fps, not 60.
- 3,000-6,000 kbps, with a 2-second Keyframe Interval.
- Video H.264, level 4.1.
- Audio 44.1 kHz, stereo, 128 kbps.
What the Facebook ingest URL is made of
Joined into one string, the server and key look like this:
rtmps://rtmp-api.facebook.com/rtmp/FB-1234567890123456-0-AbCdEfGhIjKlMnOprtmps://- TLS on port 443. Facebook is the one platform in this set that expects RTMPS rather than merely accepting it.rtmp-api.facebook.com- the Ingest Server the API returns. Live Producer may show you a different host for the same purpose; use whichever one you were given./rtmp/- the application name, and the split point: everything before it is the server field, everything after it is the key field.FB-…- the Stream Key. Single-use unless you asked for a persistent one, and Facebook recommends refreshing any key older than 7 days.
That is why a Facebook setup breaks in a way a YouTube one does not: on YouTube the address and the key both stay put, while here the pair belongs to a broadcast.
Encoder settings Facebook publishes
Taken verbatim from Facebook's live video requirements:
- Resolution: 1080p (1920x1080).
- Frame rate: 30 fps. Facebook does not recommend 60 here, which is a real difference from Twitch and YouTube.
- Bitrate: 3,000-6,000 kbps.
- Keyframe Interval: 2 seconds.
- Video codec: H.264, level 4.1. Audio: 44.1 kHz stereo at 128 kbps.
If the same encode also has to reach Twitch or YouTube, this is the profile the others have to live with - 1080p30 at 6,000 kbps satisfies all three, which the multistreaming guide goes through in detail.
The limits that decide what a 24/7 Facebook stream can be
Facebook is stricter about session length than any other platform here, it enforces the limit itself, and it documents all of this.
- 8 hours maximum, and Facebook ends the broadcast for you. It applies to desktop, mobile and third-party software or API alike, and there is no grace period.
- 12 hours exists but is not self-service. Some Premium partners, gaming creators and media organisations are granted it case by case by a Meta team - it is an account-manager conversation, not a setting.
- Facebook's own advice for longer events is to plan the break: end the broadcast and restart it immediately, and tell viewers it is coming.
- A key older than 7 days should be refreshed, and a non-persistent key is single-use anyway.
- One live broadcast at a time per persistent key. Two encoders on the same persistent key is not multistreaming, it is a collision.
- Replays live 30 days. After that an unsaved broadcast is deleted - download it, or turn it into a Reel, before then.
So "24/7 on Facebook" means an automated cycle of eight-hour broadcasts, and the only question worth asking of a streaming tool is whether it restarts them without you.
The errors people paste into a search box
Facebook's failures are unusually legible, because two of them come with numbered API codes.
"You can't go live" - error 1363120
The permission check on account age, refused before any video is sent.
- The account has to be at least 60 days old; nothing else affects this.
- It is the profile's age, not the Page's.
- Going live from an older Page you have access to is the practical workaround.
- Waiting is the only other fix - the rule has applied to everyone since 10 June 2024.
"You can't go live" - error 1363144
The other half of the same check: the follower requirement.
- The Page, or the profile in professional mode, needs 100 followers.
- A profile not in professional mode is not eligible at all.
- Followers, not friends - the two counts are different.
- The API distinguishes this from the age rule by the code, so read the number rather than the message.
The stream ended by itself after about eight hours
Not a fault. Facebook ends the broadcast at the limit and does not extend it.
- Expect it and restart: the recommended pattern is a planned break, immediately followed by a new broadcast.
- A persistent stream key is what makes the restart automatable - the encoder configuration survives.
- 12-hour access is granted by Meta case by case, not enabled in settings.
- If your tool cannot restart on its own, a 24/7 Facebook stream is a manual job three times a day.
The key that worked last week is refused
Facebook keys are not durable in the way a YouTube key is.
- A non-persistent key belongs to one broadcast and cannot be reused.
- Facebook advises refreshing any key older than 7 days.
- Create the broadcast again in Live Producer and copy the pair afresh.
- Turn on Persistent stream key so this stops happening.
Running the eight-hour cycle without doing it yourself
Every platform in this set has a session limit; Facebook's is simply the one you meet first. Eight hours means three restarts a day, every day, at hours you did not choose - which is a chore on a desktop encoder and a non-event on a service that treats a dropped destination as something to reconnect.
TheLoops keeps the videos, encodes in a datacentre and reconnects when a platform ends a session, so the eight-hour cap becomes an implementation detail rather than an alarm clock. The persistent stream key is what makes that possible: the pair stays valid across broadcasts.
And because the encode happens once and the packets are copied (Fan-out), the same loop reaches YouTube and Twitch while Facebook is running its cycle. Destinations per broadcast go 1 on the free plan, then 3, 6 and 10; the pricing page has the rest.
Let the eight-hour cycle run itself
Upload the videos once, paste a persistent key, and let the stream come back on its own - on Facebook and on every other platform you hold a key for.
Facebook Live questions
Facebook does not publish one shared address - the server URL and the stream key are created together with the broadcast in Live Producer. The API's form is rtmps://rtmp-api.facebook.com/rtmp/ as the server with the key being everything after /rtmp/, and Live Producer may show a different host for the same purpose. Use the pair you were given, over RTMPS rather than plain RTMP.
Eight hours. Facebook states that the limit applies to desktop, mobile and third-party software alike, that the broadcast is ended automatically when it is reached, and that no extra time is given. Some Premium partners, gaming creators and media organisations are granted 12 hours case by case by a Meta team; it is not a setting you can switch on.
Only as a repeating cycle: the 8-hour cap ends every broadcast, so a round-the-clock channel is three broadcasts a day started back to back. Facebook's own recommendation for events that overrun is to end the stream and restart it immediately, and to warn viewers first. A persistent stream key is what lets the restart be automated rather than reconfigured.
Standard keys belong to a single broadcast and cannot be reused; only a persistent stream key, switched on under Advanced settings when you create the broadcast, survives. Facebook also advises refreshing any key older than 7 days, and only one live broadcast at a time may use a given persistent key.
Since 10 June 2024 the account must be at least 60 days old and the Page or professional-mode profile must have at least 100 followers. The API tells you which rule you failed: 1363120 is the age requirement, 1363144 is the follower requirement. Neither can be worked around in the encoder.