Convert Mbps to MB/s megabits per second ↔ megabytes per second Free Online Secure
Type a value in megabits per second and read it in megabytes per second at once. The factor is exact by definition, the arithmetic happens in your browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.
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Common values — Convert Mbps to MB/s (megabits per second ↔ megabytes per second)
| Mbps | MB/s |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.125 |
| 2 | 0.25 |
| 3 | 0.375 |
| 5 | 0.625 |
| 10 | 1.25 |
| 20 | 2.5 |
| 50 | 6.25 |
| 100 | 12.5 |
Where these units come from
Two industries measured the same thing and never agreed on the unit. Telecommunications counts bits — the raw ones and zeros going down the line — and so a connection is sold in megabits per second. Computing counts bytes, because a byte is what holds one character, and so a file size and a download speed are given in megabytes per second. A byte is eight bits, which is why the two numbers differ by a factor of eight and why a line advertised as fast can feel slow. There is a second trap underneath: in telecommunications mega has always meant a million exactly, while in computing it long meant 1,048,576, and the two conventions still coexist on the same machine.
Where you meet them
Megabits per second is what an internet contract, a router and a speed test will show you. Megabytes per second is what a download window, a file copy and a memory card will show you. Video streaming is quoted in megabits, hard disks and USB sticks in megabytes, and anyone comparing an advertised line speed with the figure in a progress bar is converting between the two whether they know it or not.
Questions people ask
Why does my 100 Mbps line download at only 12 MB/s?
Because it is doing exactly what it promised. One hundred megabits per second is one hundred million bits each second, and eight bits make a byte, so the most that can arrive is 12.5 megabytes per second. Your download window counts bytes; your contract counts bits. The missing fraction below 12.5 is overhead — the addressing and error-checking that every packet carries.
Is a megabyte a million bytes or 1,048,576?
Both, depending on who is counting. Disk and network makers use a million, following the metric prefixes. Operating systems have traditionally used 1,048,576, which is 2 to the twentieth. That is why a drive sold as 1 TB shows up as about 931 GB: nothing is missing, the two sides are simply counting in different units. This page uses the metric meaning throughout, as telecoms always has.
Is the answer exact?
Where both units are defined in terms of one another by whole numbers, yes — the page says so above the figure, and the only rounding is in how many digits are shown. Where the ratio has no finite decimal, the page shows twelve significant digits and says the relation is approximate rather than pretending otherwise.
Does anything I type leave my device?
No. The arithmetic runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded and there is no server to upload it to. Load the page once and it keeps working with the network switched off.
Megabits per second to megabytes per second: bitrates, backups and how long things really take
Internet speed and video quality are quoted in megabits per second, but the thing you actually wait for is a file, and files are sized in megabytes. A streaming service asks for 25 Mbps for 4K, a backup tool shows 11 MB/s, a data centre plans a 10 Gbps link, and a photographer wonders how long 10 GB of RAW files will take to upload. All of them need the same step: dividing by eight. To convert Mbps to MB/s, divide by 8, which is multiplying by 0.125: 8 Mbps is 1 MB/s, 100 Mbps is 12.5 MB/s and 1,000 Mbps is 125 MB/s. The calculator above does the division as you type, and the sections below show what it means for video bitrates, transfer times, backup windows and network design.
The page gives the rule with worked examples, a profile of each unit, a comparison and a long run of media and network cases, followed by the usual slips. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere. Real speeds depend on the whole path between two machines and are usually lower than the nominal rate.
How to convert Mbps to MB/s: divide by 8
The rule
There are 8 bits in a byte and a million bytes in a megabyte, so one megabit per second equals 0.125 megabytes per second. To convert Mbps to MB/s, divide the Mbps by 8: 48 Mbps gives 6 MB/s, 250 Mbps gives 31.25 MB/s and 2,000 Mbps gives 250 MB/s. To go the other way, multiply MB/s by 8.
The case of the letter b
A small b means bit and a capital B means byte. "Mbps" or "Mb/s" is megabits per second, and "MB/s" is megabytes per second. The factor of eight between them explains why a "200 megabit" connection downloads a file at 25 megabytes a second.
Worked examples
A 4K stream at 25 Mbps flows at 3.125 MB/s. A gigabit link usually delivers 940 Mbps of payload, 117.5 MB/s. A mobile 5G link of 300 Mbps gives 37.5 MB/s, and a 4G link of 40 Mbps gives 5 MB/s.
A quick sanity test
The answer in MB/s should be one eighth of the Mbps figure. If a “convert Mbps to MB/s” calculation gave a larger number than you started with, you multiplied by 8 instead of dividing.
The megabit per second
The language of networks and bitrates
Telecommunications measures how fast bits move along a line. Internet providers, router makers, Wi-Fi and Ethernet standards, and streaming services all use megabits and gigabits per second.
Where it appears
Internet plans, Wi-Fi specifications, video bitrates and network equipment.
The megabyte per second
The language of files and storage
Storage and software measure how much data of a given size arrives in a second. Download managers, copy dialogs, disk benchmarks and camera cards display megabytes per second, because files and capacities are in bytes.
Where it appears
Browsers, file copying, disks, cards and backup tools.
Mbps set beside MB/s
One Mbps is 0.125 MB/s, so the figure in MB/s is one eighth of the Mbps figure. 64 Mbps is 8 MB/s and 640 Mbps is 80 MB/s. Both describe identical speed, and only the size of the unit differs.
Nothing is lost in the conversion. People most often trip over the capital and small b, which hide a factor of eight.
Where the conversion shows up
Video bitrates
Streaming bitrates are quoted in Mbps: about 1.5 for 480p, 3 for 720p, 5 to 8 for 1080p, 15 to 25 for 4K and 50 to 100 for 8K. In MB/s these are 0.19, 0.375, 0.6 to 1, 1.9 to 3.1 and 6.3 to 12.5. An hour of 4K at 25 Mbps uses 11.25 GB. A “convert Mbps to MB/s” calculation on the bitrate gives the data bill of a viewing session.
Transfer times
Time equals size divided by speed. A 10 GB set of RAW photos sent at 50 Mbps upload, 6.25 MB/s, takes 1,600 seconds, 26.7 minutes. A 500 MB medical scan on a 100 Mbps link, 12.5 MB/s, needs 40 seconds. A 100 GB database replicated over 1 Gbps takes 800 seconds in the ideal case and about 850 in practice.
Backup windows
A nightly backup of 2 TB over a 1 Gbps link, 125 MB/s, takes 16,000 seconds, 4.4 hours. The same backup at 100 Mbps would take 44 hours and could never fit into a night. Backup design starts with this figure and then picks incremental or deduplicated schemes.
Audio streams
A CD-quality stream is 1,411 kbps, which is 0.176 MB/s and 635 MB an hour. A high-resolution stereo file at 24 bits and 96 kHz is 4,608 kbps, 0.576 MB/s, or 2.07 GB an hour. A compressed stream at 256 kbps is only 0.032 MB/s, 115 MB an hour.
Satellite imagery and science
An Earth-observation satellite downlinking at 800 Mbps sends 100 MB/s while it is over a ground station. A pass of 10 minutes brings down 60 GB. Large telescopes and particle detectors move far more, in terabits per second, but the bit-to-byte division is the same.
Broadcast and professional video
A professional 4K contribution feed runs at 100 Mbps, 12.5 MB/s, which is 45 GB an hour. An uncompressed HD-SDI signal of 1.485 Gbps is 185.6 MB/s. Broadcast engineers speak in Mbps and Gbps, while editors check storage in MB/s, and a “convert Mbps to MB/s” calculation joins their numbers.
Internet of things
A sensor sending 100 bytes every second uses only 800 bps, 0.0001 MB/s. A fleet of 10,000 such sensors adds up to 8 Mbps, 1 MB/s, or 86 GB a day. Small packets carry overheads of tens of bytes, so the real figure is often two or three times higher.
Mobile data caps
A monthly allowance of 50 GB lasts 13,333 seconds, 3.7 hours, of continuous download at 30 Mbps, 3.75 MB/s. A user who streams 1080p at 5 Mbps, 2.25 GB an hour, empties the same cap in 22 hours of viewing. Speed and cap are separate limits.
A worked example
You want to send a 30 GB wedding video to a client over a plan with 40 Mbps upload. The speed is 5 MB/s, so the transfer takes 30,000 / 5 = 6,000 seconds, 100 minutes, if nothing else uses the line. With a 90 per cent efficiency it is nearly two hours. A cloud link with resumable upload is a sensible precaution.
The mental shortcut
To convert Mbps to MB/s in your head, halve the number three times. For 240 Mbps: 120, then 60, then 30 MB/s. For 90 Mbps: 45, 22.5, 11.25 MB/s. It is exact, because eight is two cubed.
Spreadsheet formulas
With the Mbps in column A, put =A2/8 in column B. The reverse is =B2*8. To find the transfer time in seconds for a file of F megabytes, write =F/(A2/8). A column of =A2/8*3.6 gives gigabytes per hour for a continuous stream.
Rounding in speed reports
Speed tests vary by 10 to 30 per cent from run to run, so quote MB/s to one decimal place. 100 Mbps is 12.5 MB/s, not 12.50000. The error of the measurement dwarfs any digits after the first decimal.
Landmarks to memorise
8 Mbps is 1 MB/s. 24 Mbps is 3 MB/s. 80 Mbps is 10 MB/s. 200 Mbps is 25 MB/s. 800 Mbps is 100 MB/s. 1 Gbps is 125 MB/s. With these landmarks nearly every mental convert Mbps to MB/s is possible.
Reference ladder
5 Mbps: 0.625 MB/s. 15 Mbps: 1.875 MB/s. 45 Mbps: 5.625 MB/s. 150 Mbps: 18.75 MB/s. 450 Mbps: 56.25 MB/s. 900 Mbps: 112.5 MB/s. A table like this lets you test a calculator output at a glance.
Gaming and cloud gaming
A cloud-gaming service delivering 1080p at 60 frames per second needs about 25 Mbps, 3.1 MB/s, and 4K needs 45 Mbps or more, 5.6 MB/s. Downloading a 70 GB game at 300 Mbps, 37.5 MB/s, takes 31 minutes. The speed that matters for play is latency, not bandwidth.
Checking by reversing
To check a “convert Mbps to MB/s” calculation result, multiply the answer by 8. If 150 Mbps gave 18.75 MB/s, then 18.75 × 8 = 150. A second test is size: the MB/s figure must be an eighth of the Mbps one.
Link to bytes per second and gigabytes per hour
One Mbps is 125,000 bytes a second, 0.125 MB/s and 450 MB an hour. A rate of 100 Mbps is 12.5 MB/s and 45 GB an hour. These express the same speed, and a “convert Mbps to MB/s” calculation just swaps the label.
MB and MiB
Some programs show mebibytes per second, units of 1,048,576 bytes. 100 Mbps is 12.5 MB/s but 11.92 MiB/s, a gap of 4.6 per cent. At a gigabit the figures are 125 MB/s and 119.2 MiB/s. Check which unit the software uses before you compare.
Two routes to one answer
You can divide the Mbps by 8 straight, or go through bytes: Mbps × 1,000,000 / 8 gives bytes a second, and dividing that by 1,000,000 gives MB/s. If the routes disagree, a digit was copied wrongly.
Classrooms and offices
Thirty students streaming a lesson at 5 Mbps each draw 150 Mbps, 18.75 MB/s, from the school line. A building of 300 people on video calls at 3 Mbps each needs 900 Mbps, 112.5 MB/s, if all call at once. A “convert Mbps to MB/s” calculation on the building total shows whether a plan of 1 Gbps is really enough.
Software updates and patches
A 3 GB patch at 50 Mbps, 6.25 MB/s, takes 480 seconds, 8 minutes. The same patch distributed to 200 office computers at once needs 600 GB of traffic and, over a 1 Gbps link, about an hour and twenty minutes. Update servers inside the company network spare the external line this load.
Scanning and printing
An A4 page scanned at 600 dpi in 24-bit colour is about 104 MB uncompressed. Sent over a 100 Mbps link, 12.5 MB/s, it takes 8.4 seconds. A document of 50 such pages is 5.2 GB and 7 minutes. Compression to PDF or JPEG cuts the size by 10 to 30 times.
Drones and live feeds
A drone sending a live video feed at 8 Mbps is moving 1 MB/s, 3.6 GB an hour. The remote controller receives it over a radio link with a few tens of Mbps of capacity, so there is room for telemetry. A video with higher quality for recording stays on the aircraft's card.
Passive optical networks
A GPON fibre carries 2,488 Mbps, 311 MB/s, downstream and shares it among 32 to 64 homes. With 32 homes each gets up to 77.8 Mbps, 9.7 MB/s, if all pull at once, and much more if few do. A home plan of 1 Gbps is therefore sold as a maximum, not a guarantee.
Older broadband
An ADSL line of 24 Mbps gives 3 MB/s, a cable plan of 100 Mbps gives 12.5 MB/s and the old E1 telephone circuit of 2.048 Mbps gives 0.256 MB/s. The T1 line of 1.544 Mbps gives 0.193 MB/s. These figures show how far consumer lines have come.
TCP and the bandwidth-delay product
A single TCP connection with a 64 kB window over a path with a 50 ms round trip can move only 65,535 bytes every 50 ms, which is 1.31 MB/s, 10.5 Mbps, however fast the line. To fill 100 Mbps, 12.5 MB/s, over that path the window must be at least 625 kB. Modern systems tune the window automatically, but old settings still cap some transfers.
Wi-Fi link rate and throughput
A Wi-Fi link rate of 1,201 Mbps, 150 MB/s, is the speed of the radio at its best. Because Wi-Fi shares the air and spends time on acknowledgements, the usable throughput is around 55 to 65 per cent of it, 80 to 100 MB/s, in the best conditions. Behind walls it may be 20 per cent.
Ethernet and copper
Gigabit Ethernet carries 125 MB/s, 2.5-gigabit 312.5 MB/s, 10-gigabit 1,250 MB/s and 25-gigabit 3,125 MB/s at line rate. Frame overhead takes about 5 per cent, so file copies reach 117 MB/s on gigabit. A “convert Mbps to MB/s” calculation on each rating tells what the storage behind the port must deliver.
Network attached storage
A home NAS behind a gigabit port writes about 110 MB/s, 880 Mbps, when its disks keep up. With a 2.5-gigabit port the limit rises to 280 MB/s, which only a pair of fast drives or an SSD can supply. The network and the disk are two links in one chain, and the slower sets the pace.
Remote work and video calls
A group video call needs 2 to 4 Mbps down and 1 to 3 Mbps up per participant, 0.25 to 0.5 MB/s down, 0.125 to 0.375 MB/s up. A household of four on calls at the same time uses about 12 Mbps downstream, 1.5 MB/s. The sum is small, which explains why modest plans suffice for office work.
More values for convert Mbps to MB/s
A longer list of conversions
If the value you need is not in the first list, these further conversions may be close enough to read off directly:
- 0.1 Mbps = 0.0125 MB/s
- 0.5 Mbps = 0.0625 MB/s
- 3 Mbps = 0.375 MB/s
- 4 Mbps = 0.5 MB/s
- 7 Mbps = 0.875 MB/s
- 15 Mbps = 1.875 MB/s
- 20 Mbps = 2.5 MB/s
- 75 Mbps = 9.375 MB/s
- 200 Mbps = 25 MB/s
- 500 Mbps = 62.5 MB/s
- 2,000 Mbps = 250 MB/s
- 10,000 Mbps = 1,250 MB/s
Common slips with a “convert Mbps to MB/s” calculation
Multiplying by 8
From Mbps to MB/s the number gets smaller. If 100 Mbps became 800, you used the factor for the other direction.
Small b and capital B
Mbps and MBps are different units, as are Mb and MB. Check the letters on packaging, apps and data sheets before you calculate.
Line rate against payload
A plan's speed counts all bits on the line. Headers, retransmissions and encryption take 5 to 10 per cent, so a file never arrives at exactly the advertised rate.
Short answers
How do I convert Mbps to MB/s?
Divide the Mbps by 8.
How many MB/s is 100 Mbps?
12.5 MB/s.
How many MB/s is 1,000 Mbps?
125 MB/s.
How many Mbps is 10 MB/s?
80 Mbps.
Does my number leave my device?
No, the calculation runs in your browser.
More pages and a wrap-up
For other conversions see Convert km to mi, Convert mi to km, Convert °C to °F, Convert °F to °C, Convert hp to kW, Convert cm² to m², Convert ft² to m², Convert knots to km/h, Convert ml to fl oz. For the opposite direction see Convert MB/s to Mbps.
In short, a “convert Mbps to MB/s” calculation means one division by 8 and a unit written next to the result. Your figure is calculated locally, with no account and no upload.