Mebibytes to Gigabits (MiB to Gb)

1 mebibyte equals 0.008388608 gigabits exactly.

How to convert mebibytes to gigabits

To convert mebibytes to gigabits, multiply the number of mebibytes by 0.008388608. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply gigabits by 119.2092896 (rounded).

gigabits = mebibytes × 0.008388608

Example: 10 mebibytes = 0.08388608 gigabits.

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

Mebibyte (MiB)

ComputingCurrent unit

Exactly 1,048,576 bytes (2²⁰). The binary megabyte, about 4.9% larger than a decimal megabyte.

Mebi, from mega with the binary i added, belongs to the same 1998 IEC family as kibi and gibi, which the IEC published as Amendment 2 to IEC 60027-2 in January 1999. NIST gives the factor as 2 to the twentieth, or 1,048,576 bytes. It was meant to settle a real argument: once storage makers and telecom engineers used decimal values and programmers used binary ones, megabyte came to mean different amounts.

A mebibyte is about 4.9 percent larger than a megabyte, and the standard is now IEC 80000-13. The classic example is the 1.44 MB floppy, whose true capacity is 1,440 KiB, which is 1.47 MB or 1.41 MiB. Like other IEC symbols, MiB is rarely used outside tools such as KDE and Qt-based applications, while Windows and RAM labels use MB for the binary quantity.

1 mebibyte = 1,048,576 bytes (exactly).

Sources: NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples; Wikipedia: Mebibyte

Gigabit (Gb)

ComputingCurrent unit

1,000,000,000 bits (125 MB).

Gigabit is one billion bits, or 125 million bytes. In the IEC notation it is written Gbit, while IEEE 1541-2002 recommends Gb, which may be confused with GB for gigabyte. The binary counterpart, the gibibit, is 2 to the thirtieth bits. Network links and fiber are usually rated in gigabits per second, because data transfer rates are measured in decimal SI multiples.

Memory is where gigabits and binary habits collide. Chip capacity is often given in binary multiples using the ambiguous G prefix rather than the IEC Gi, so a DRAM chip advertised as 1 GB has 2 to the thirtieth bytes. The Wikipedia article on the bit says this was still causing difficulty for software designers as of 2022. When you see a gigabit rate, divide by eight for gigabytes per second.

1 gigabit = 125,000,000 bytes (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Gigabit; Wikipedia: Bit

Related conversions

See all digital storage units.