Looking to buy a new dash cam? Or maybe you’ve never had one, and decided to finally get your first? Then you’re probably wondering how much you should expect to pay for it.
Turns out that as of today, the formula is actually quite simple. Let’s not beat around the bush:
For a quality dash cam with good video, the price to expect is:
The number of channels is 1 for a dash cam that records only forward, 2 for a front and rear dash cam, and 3 or 4 for dash cams that record front, rear, and inside the car.
So basically, you decide whether you want to record forward only (1 channel / 1CH), front and rear (2CH), or whether you also want additional channels to record inside the car (3CH and 4CH). Then multiply the total number of channels by 100, and you have a good price estimate in dollars.
Budget tip: If that sounds too expensive and you’d prefer a more affordable cam, you can go as low as about $40-70 per channel. Check out part 2 of our Price Analysis series if you’d like to spend a little less.
Dash Cams With Best Video Quality For The Money As Of 2026
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Viofo A119v3Channels: 1 Approximate Price: $100 Video Quality Score: 3.5/5 Vendors: Amazon US / CA / UK – more countries & vendors (ad) Compact, minimalist, no frills. Full review |
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Viofo A229 Plus 2CHChannels: 2 Approximate Price: $200 Video Quality Score: 3.5/5 Vendors: Amazon US / CA / UK – more countries & vendors (ad) Best value for money front and rear cam. Full review |
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70mai T800Channels: 3 Approximate Price: $300 Video Quality Score: 4.0/5 Vendors: Amazon US / CA / UK – more countries & vendors (ad) Records front, rear, and inside. Top video quality. Full review |
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Vantrue N5SChannels: 4 Approximate Price: $400 Video Quality Score: 3.0/5 Vendors: Amazon US / CA / UK – more countries & vendors (ad) Records front and rear, inside and out. Full review |
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Video Quality Score Explained
To determine the Video Quality Score of a dash cam, we evaluate numerous sample videos from users around the world. Each video channel gets from 0 to 5 points, both for day, and for night performance. The Video Quality Score is the arithmetic average of those ratings.
A score of 0 means you can hardly see anything in the video. 1 means you can more or less see what’s going on, but not read most license plates. 2 means license plate readability is hit and miss. 3 means you can read most plates okay when you pause the video. 4 means you can read license plates even without stopping the feed. The top score, 5, signifies that all details are clearly visible – we give that score only rarely.
Currently the dash cam with the best score is the 70mai T800, with an overall score of 4.0.
Comparison With Other Dash Cams
To see how each of these models compare to other dash cams in their category, check out our comprehensive dash cam comparison tables. For a detailed description of each camera, go to the full reviews linked above.
In the second part of this series, we’ll explore some more affordable dash cam options.