Data rate is measured in units such as bit/s, kbit/s, Mbit/s, Gbit/s, kB/s, MB/s, MiB/s. Pick a source and target unit above, enter a value, and the result appears instantly — free and entirely in your browser. Below you'll find the most common individual conversions as dedicated pages.
Which data rate units are there?
- Bits per second (bit/s) — Bits per second (bit/s) is the base unit of data rate: how many single 0-or-1 signals a line carries each second. Network speeds are quoted in bits, file sizes in bytes — one byte is eight bits.
- Kilobits per second (kbit/s) — A kilobit per second (kbit/s) is 1,000 bit/s. It measured dial-up modems (56 kbit/s) and still describes audio bitrates: a 320 kbit/s MP3 uses 40 kB/s of bandwidth.
- Megabits per second (Mbit/s) — A megabit per second (Mbit/s) is one million bit/s and the unit internet plans are sold in. Divide by eight for the download speed you see: 100 Mbit/s is at most 12.5 MB/s.
- Gigabits per second (Gbit/s) — A gigabit per second (Gbit/s) is 1,000 Mbit/s. Gigabit Ethernet and fibre plans use it; a full 1 Gbit/s carries at most 125 MB/s — one gigabyte in eight seconds.
- Kilobytes per second (kB/s) — Kilobytes per second (kB/s) counts bytes rather than bits: 1 kB/s equals 8 kbit/s. Browsers and download managers usually show progress in bytes, which is why the number looks eight times smaller than the plan.
- Megabytes per second (MB/s) — Megabytes per second (MB/s) is what a download window shows. One MB/s equals 8 Mbit/s, so a 50 Mbit/s line tops out at about 6.25 MB/s before any protocol overhead.
- Mebibytes per second (MiB/s) — Mebibytes per second (MiB/s) uses the binary megabyte of 1,048,576 bytes. Linux tools and disk benchmarks report in MiB/s; 1 MiB/s equals 8.389 Mbit/s, about 4.9% more than 1 MB/s.
Key facts about data rate
Internet plans are sold in megabits per second, downloads run in megabytes per second, and the factor of eight between them is the most common misunderstanding in the whole field. Storage tools add a second gap by counting in binary units (MiB/s).
Eight bits make one byte, so a 100 Mbit/s line carries at most 12.5 MB/s. EU Regulation 2015/2120 obliges fixed-line providers to state the minimum, normally available and maximum speed in the contract — the advertised figure is a ceiling, not a promise.
What can the converter not tell you?
This converter changes units, nothing else. It cannot tell you how fast a file will actually arrive: protocol overhead, Wi-Fi, the server at the other end and everyone else on the line all cost throughput, and a plan states the line rate, not the delivered rate. Only a measurement answers that question.
How to use the data rate converter
- Pick the source unit and enter the data rate value.
- Pick the target unit — the result appears instantly.
- Use the swap button to reverse the direction.
Everything runs locally in your browser — no uploads, no waiting, no limits, and it even works offline.