Ever wondered why your 100 Mbps internet connection only downloads files at 12 MB/s? You're not alone. Our Data Transfer Rate Converter helps you translate between the marketing units used by ISPs (bits) and the practical units used by your computer (bytes).
Data Transfer Rate Converter
Convert data transfer rate converter instantly.
The Data Rate Converter is a specialized tool for network engineers, streamers, and gamers. It bridges the gap between bits per second (bps), used to measure bandwidth, and bytes per second (B/s), used to measure file size.
ISP Marketing (Bits)
Companies use Megabits (Mbps) because the numbers are 8x larger, making the service seem faster.
Real Speed (Bytes)
Operating systems use Megabytes (MB/s) because files are stored in 8-bit groups called bytes.
- Select the unit you have (e.g., Mbps from your speed test).
- Select the unit you want (e.g., MB/s for download estimation).
- Enter the value and see all standardized conversions instantly.
Why is my speed lower than the result?
The mathematical conversion provides a theoretical maximum. In the real world, "Network Overhead" (TCP/IP packet headers) takes up about 5-10% of your bandwidth. If you have 100 Mbps, your theoretical max is 12.5 MB/s, but you will likely see around 11.5 MB/s in practice.
Latency vs. Throughput
A high data rate (Mbps) is like a wide pipe—it can carry a lot of water. But Latency (Ping) is how fast that water travels from the source to you. For gaming, low latency is more important than high Mbps!
The Golden Rule: 8-to-1
To convert Megabits (Mbps) to Megabytes (MB/s), divide the number by 8. To go the other way, multiply by 8.
Related Tools
What is Mbps?
Megabits per second. It refers to the speed of data transfer across a network connection.
What is MB/s?
Megabytes per second. It refers to how much of a file is written to your drive every second during a download.
How many Mbps is 4K video?
Netflix recommends at least 25 Mbps for 4K streaming. Our tool shows that this is about 3.125 MB/s.
1 Gbps to MB/s?
A Gigabit connection (1,000 Mbps) equals exactly 125 MB/s of theoretical download speed.
Conversions use the standard 8 bits to 1 byte ratio. SI decimal prefixes are used for Kbps, Mbps, and Gbps (base 1000) to align with industry advertising standards.