Gbps to Mbps
1 gigabit per second equals 1,000 megabits per second exactly.
How to convert gigabits per second to megabits per second
To convert gigabits per second to megabits per second, multiply the number of gigabits per second by 1,000. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply megabits per second by 0.001.
megabits per second = gigabits per second × 1,000
Example: 10 gigabits per second = 10,000 megabits 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
Gigabit Per Second (Gbps)
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)
Megabit Per Second (Mbps)
1,000,000 bits per second. The unit of internet connection speeds; 8 Mbps is 1 MB/s.
Megabits entered everyday life through Ethernet. The original 10BASE5 version arrived in 1981 at 10 Mbit/s, Fast Ethernet raised the figure to 100 Mbit/s in 1995, and wireless followed, with 802.11b offering 11 Mbit/s in 1999. Telecommunications engineers had always meant exactly one million bits per second by the megabit, while computer memory vendors were stretching the word mega toward powers of two. That divergence is part of why the IEC later published separate binary prefixes.
Internet providers still sell service in Mbit/s, which is why a plan and a download counter seem to disagree. A byte is eight bits, so 100 Mbit/s is at most 12.5 MB/s, and a 1 GB file needs about 80 seconds at that rate under ideal conditions. Streaming is far lighter: YouTube video at 1080p is listed at roughly 3 to 8 Mbit/s with H.264, and 2160p at 8 to 35 Mbit/s. Real throughput is lower than the line rate because of protocol overhead.
1 megabit per second = 1,000,000 bits per second (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Bit rate (Ethernet, Wi-Fi and streaming rates); NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples; Wikipedia: Megabit
Related conversions
- Mbps to Gbps (reverse)
- Gbps to bps
- Gbps to Kbps
- Gbps to MB/s
- Gbps to Tbps
- Gbps to B/s
- Gbps to KB/s
- Gbps to GB/s
- Gbps to MiB/s
- Gbps to Kibit/s
- Gbps to Mibit/s
- Gbps to Gibit/s
- Gbps to KiB/s
- Bps to Mbps
- Kbps to Mbps
- MB/s to Mbps
- Tbps to Mbps
- B/s to Mbps
- KB/s to Mbps
- GB/s to Mbps
- MiB/s to Mbps
- Kibit/s to Mbps
- Mibit/s to Mbps
- Gibit/s to Mbps
- KiB/s to Mbps
See all data transfer rate units.