Result
Enter a speed to see it in every unit.
| Unit | Value |
|---|
Bits and bytes: the factor of 8
Internet providers sell speed in bits per second (Mbps, with a lowercase "b"). Browsers, game launchers and download managers usually show bytes per second (MB/s, with an uppercase "B"). One byte is 8 bits, so the same speed looks 8 times smaller in MB/s.
- Mbps to MB/s: divide by 8. 100 Mbps ÷ 8 = 12.5 MB/s.
- MB/s to Mbps: multiply by 8. 30 MB/s × 8 = 240 Mbps.
- Prefixes are decimal: K = 1,000, M = 1,000,000 and G = 1,000,000,000. So 1 Gbps = 1,000 Mbps and 1 MB/s = 1,000 KB/s.
Common plan speeds
| Plan speed | Maximum download speed | 1 GB takes at least |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Mbps | 1.25 MB/s | 13 min 20 s |
| 25 Mbps | 3.13 MB/s | 5 min 20 s |
| 50 Mbps | 6.25 MB/s | 2 min 40 s |
| 100 Mbps | 12.5 MB/s | 1 min 20 s |
| 200 Mbps | 25 MB/s | 40 s |
| 500 Mbps | 62.5 MB/s | 16 s |
| 1 Gbps | 125 MB/s | 8 s |
| 10 Gbps | 1,250 MB/s | 0.8 s |
Times are the theoretical minimum at full plan speed. Real downloads are usually 10–20% slower.
Examples
- Your provider sells a 100 Mbps plan. Divide by 8: a download can reach about 12.5 MB/s, and usually shows 10–11 MB/s once network overhead is taken off.
- A game launcher shows 30 MB/s. Multiply by 8: you are receiving 240 Mbps.
- A 1 Gbps fibre line tops out at 125 MB/s. Many hard drives write at around 150–200 MB/s, so a fast connection can approach a hard drive's limit.
- An HD video stream using 5 Mbps needs 625 KB/s, so a 25 Mbps line can carry four such streams with some room left for browsing.
- Watch the capital letter: 800 Kbps (kilobits) is only 100 KB/s (kilobytes).
Why your speed may look different
- Network overhead: TCP/IP headers, encryption and Wi-Fi take 5–15% of the line, so the speed you see is lower than the plan speed converted.
- Binary units: Windows and some apps show MiB/s (1 MiB = 1,048,576 bytes) but label it "MB/s". A reading of 10 "MB/s" in those apps is about 10.5 MB/s in the decimal units used here.
- Shared lines and busy servers: other devices on your network and slow download servers both reduce the speed a single download reaches.
To see how long a specific file will take, including a realistic allowance for overhead, use the Internet Download Time Calculator.