Bits to Kilobits (bit to kb)
1 bit equals 0.001 kilobits exactly.
How to convert bits to kilobits
To convert bits to kilobits, multiply the number of bits by 0.001. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply kilobits by 1,000.
kilobits = bits × 0.001
Example: 10 bits = 0.01 kilobits.
Decimal prefixes (kB, MB, GB) are powers of 1,000; binary prefixes (KiB, MiB, GiB) are powers of 1,024. Storage makers use decimal; Windows reports binary but labels it GB.
About these units
Bit (bit)
The smallest unit of digital information: a single 0 or 1. Eight bits make a byte.
Bit is short for binary digit, and the word was coined by John W. Tukey. He shortened the phrase in a Bell Labs memo dated 9 January 1947. Claude Shannon first used it in print in his 1948 paper A Mathematical Theory of Communication and credited Tukey with the word. The idea predates the name: Ralph Hartley proposed a logarithmic measure of information in 1928, and punched cards, invented by Basile Bouchon and Jean-Baptiste Falcon in 1732 and developed by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1804, already stored one bit per hole position.
A bit holds one of two values, written 0 or 1, and everything digital is built from them. Eight bits make a byte, so a bit is one eighth of a byte. Symbols for the unit are not settled: the IEC standard uses bit, while IEEE 1541-2002 recommends a lowercase b, with uppercase B reserved for the byte. The difference matters because internet speeds and file sizes are quoted in different units.
1 bit = 0.125 bytes (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Bit; NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples
Kilobit (kb)
1,000 bits (125 bytes). Used for data rates and sizes in telecommunications.
Kilobit means a thousand bits, and in telecommunications data rates are usually measured in decimal SI multiples. The article on the bit gives a handy example: a channel capacity of 8 kbit/s is 1 kB/s, so dividing kilobits by eight gives kilobytes. The binary counterpart, the kibibit, is 1,024 bits, but it is seldom used.
Symbols cause trouble. The IEC standard says to write kbit, while IEEE 1541-2002 recommends a lowercase b, giving kb, and the lowercase b may be confused with capital B for byte. On this site a kilobit is 125 bytes. The history behind it is that of the bit itself: Ralph Hartley proposed a logarithmic information measure in 1928, and Claude Shannon first used the word in 1948, crediting John W. Tukey.
1 kilobit = 125 bytes (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Bit; Wikipedia: Kilobit
Related conversions
- Kilobits to bits (reverse)
- Bits to bytes
- Bits to kilobytes
- Bits to megabytes
- Bits to gigabytes
- Bits to terabytes
- Bits to petabytes
- Bits to kibibytes
- Bits to mebibytes
- Bits to gibibytes
- Bits to tebibytes
- Bits to megabits
- Bits to gigabits
- Bytes to kilobits
- Kilobytes to kilobits
- Megabytes to kilobits
- Gigabytes to kilobits
- Terabytes to kilobits
- Petabytes to kilobits
- Kibibytes to kilobits
- Mebibytes to kilobits
- Gibibytes to kilobits
- Tebibytes to kilobits
- Megabits to kilobits
- Gigabits to kilobits
See all digital storage units.