Bandwidth Converter

Bandwidth is the rate at which data moves, measured at its most basic in bits per second (bps). The whole topic is haunted by one distinction that confuses almost everyone: bits versus bytes. There are 8 bits in a byte, and that factor of 8 is behind a lot of frustration.

Bit-based units (how connections are sold):

• 1 Kbps = 1,000 bps
• 1 Mbps = 1,000,000 bps
• 1 Gbps = 1,000,000,000 bps

Byte-based units (how downloads are shown):

• 1 B/s = 8 bps
• 1 MB/s = 8,000,000 bps

Real-world speeds:

• 4G LTE: 10–50 Mbps
• 5G: 100–1,000 Mbps
• Gigabit Ethernet: 1 Gbps (about 125 MB/s)

Here’s where people feel cheated. Internet providers advertise bandwidth in megabits per second (Mbps), but your download manager reports megabytes per second (MB/s). Divide the megabit figure by 8 to get the megabyte figure. A 100 Mbps connection tops out near 12.5 MB/s, so a file pulling down at “12 MB/s” on a 100 Mbps line is running at full speed, not a quarter of it.

It isn’t a scam, just two units measuring the same pipe. Once the divide-by-8 becomes second nature, the gap between the number you pay for and the number you watch on screen stops being a mystery.