Megabit (Mb)

ComputingCurrent unit

1,000,000 bits (125,000 bytes). Internet speeds are advertised in megabits per second.

1 megabit = 125,000 bytes (exactly).

1 megabit = 125,000 bytes

About the megabit

Megabit is the unit behind most internet plans: speeds are quoted in megabits per second, while files are sized in megabytes. Since a byte is eight bits, a megabit is one eighth of a megabyte, which is 125,000 bytes in decimal units, and an advertised speed in Mbit/s therefore looks eight times larger than the same rate in megabytes per second. Data transfer rates are usually measured in decimal SI multiples.

Writing it is tricky. The IEC symbol is Mbit and the IEEE recommends Mb, but a capital M with lowercase b is easy to confuse with MB, the megabyte. The binary counterpart, the mebibit, is rarely used. Memory chips are sometimes sized in megabits too, so check which unit a spec sheet is using before comparing numbers.

Sources: Wikipedia: Bit; Wikipedia: Megabit

Megabit conversion chart

1 megabit expressed in every other digital storage unit:

Unit1 megabit
Bytes125,000
Kilobytes125
Megabytes0.125
Gigabytes0.000125
Terabytes1.25×10⁻⁷
Bits1,000,000
Petabytes1.25×10⁻¹⁰
Kibibytes122.0703125
Mebibytes0.1192092896
Gibibytes0.0001164153218
Tebibytes1.136868377×10⁻⁷
Kilobits1,000
Gigabits0.001
Exabytes1.25×10⁻¹³
Zettabytes1.25×10⁻¹⁶
Yottabytes1.25×10⁻¹⁹
Pebibytes1.110223025×10⁻¹⁰
Exbibytes1.084202172×10⁻¹³
Terabits0.000001
Kibibits976.5625
Mebibits0.9536743164
Gibibits0.0009313225746
Nibbles250,000

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