GB/s to Gbps

1 gigabyte per second equals 8 gigabits per second exactly.

1 gigabyte per second = 8 gigabits per second

How to convert gigabytes per second to gigabits per second

To convert gigabytes per second to gigabits per second, multiply the number of gigabytes per second by 8. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply gigabits per second by 0.125.

gigabits per second = gigabytes per second × 8

Example: 10 gigabytes per second = 80 gigabits per second.

Network speeds are quoted in bits per second (lowercase b), while file sizes use bytes (uppercase B). Divide Mbps by 8 for MB/s.

About these units

Gigabyte Per Second (GB/s)

ComputingCurrent unit

1,000,000,000 bytes per second (8 Gbps). Memory and fast SSD bandwidth.

The gigabyte grew out of the same habit of rounding 1,024 to 1,000. In 1998 the IEC published binary prefixes, reserving gigabyte for the decimal value of 1,000,000,000 bytes and naming 1,073,741,824 bytes a gibibyte. Disk makers have used decimal capacities since the first disk drive, which is why a drive sold as 400 GB can appear as about 372 GB in Windows, while macOS, iOS and Android report decimal sizes.

A gigabyte per second is 1,000,000,000 bytes per second, equal to 8 Gbit/s. At that rate a 25 GB single-layer Blu-ray worth of data transfers in 25 seconds, and one hour of standard-definition video at 2.2 Mbit/s, about 1 GB, would pass in a single second. A 10 Gigabit Ethernet link, by comparison, tops out near 1.25 GB/s. Memory and storage interfaces tend to be described in this unit because their bandwidth is far beyond what ordinary networks offer.

1 gigabyte per second = 8,000,000,000 bits per second (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Gigabyte; Wikipedia: 10 Gigabit Ethernet; NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples

Gigabit Per Second (Gbps)

ComputingCurrent unit

1,000,000,000 bits per second. Fiber and Ethernet speeds are quoted in Gbps.

Gigabit Ethernet came in two stages. IEEE 802.3z, produced in June 1998, was the first version and required optical fiber. IEEE 802.3ab, ratified in 1999, defined 1000BASE-T over four twisted pairs of ordinary copper cabling, which is what turned a backbone technology into something that could reach desktops. Over time, one gigabit per second became a built-in feature of many computers.

A gigabit per second is 1,000,000,000 bit/s, or 125 MB/s once the eight bits in a byte are accounted for. At that speed an ideal transfer of a 4.7 GB single-layer DVD image takes about 38 seconds. Ten Gigabit Ethernet, first defined in IEEE 802.3ae in 2002 and extended to twisted pair by 802.3an in 2006, multiplies this by ten and is common in data centers. Cable and DSL providers also quote gigabit figures; the G.fast DSL standard from 2014 tops out at 1 Gbit/s.

1 gigabit per second = 1,000,000,000 bits per second (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Gigabit Ethernet; Wikipedia: 10 Gigabit Ethernet; Wikipedia: Gigabyte (DVD capacity)

Related conversions

See all data transfer rate units.