KB/s to B/s
1 kilobyte per second equals 1,000 bytes per second exactly.
How to convert kilobytes per second to bytes per second
To convert kilobytes per second to bytes per second, multiply the number of kilobytes per second by 1,000. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply bytes per second by 0.001.
bytes per second = kilobytes per second × 1,000
Example: 10 kilobytes per second = 10,000 bytes 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
Kilobyte Per Second (kB/s)
1,000 bytes per second (8 kbps). Download managers and browsers show speeds in kB/s.
Few units have had a messier history than the kilobyte. Computers had long used kilo for 1,024 because it is close to 1,000, and early floppy disks show the muddle: the Shugart SA-400 of 1976 held 109,375 bytes and was advertised as 110 Kbyte, while the Tandon double-density drive of 1978 held 368,640 bytes and was advertised as 360 KB. In 1998 the IEC specified that kilobyte should refer only to 1,000 bytes and created the kibibyte for 1,024.
The internationally recommended symbol is kB, and a kilobyte per second is 1,000 bytes per second, or 8 kbit/s. Browsers and download managers often report speeds this way, which is why a connection sold as 8 Mbit/s shows up as about 1,000 kB/s on a file transfer. Some software still divides by 1,024 and labels the result KB, so numbers from different programs may differ by a few percent.
1 kilobyte per second = 8,000 bits per second (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Kilobyte; NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples; Wikipedia: Data-rate units
Byte Per Second (B/s)
Eight bits per second.
Byte is a younger word than bit. Werner Buchholz coined it in June 1956 during the early design of the IBM Stretch computer, deliberately spelling it with a y so that nobody would mistake it for bit. At first it had no fixed size, and Stretch's early design allowed groups of one to six bits. Eight-bit bytes were then built into Stretch, and IBM's System/360 spread them widely in the 1960s. Another person, Louis Dooley, has also claimed to have coined the term at MIT Lincoln Laboratory around 1956 or 1957.
A byte per second is eight bits per second, the smallest rate counted in bytes. Protocol documents that need to avoid any ambiguity often use the word octet for exactly eight bits. The unit is tiny by modern standards. On serial links, start, stop and parity bits mean the line must run at a higher bit rate than the byte rate alone suggests.
1 byte per second = 8 bits per second (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Byte; Wikipedia: Bit rate; Wikipedia: Data-rate units
Related conversions
- B/s to KB/s (reverse)
- KB/s to bps
- KB/s to Kbps
- KB/s to Mbps
- KB/s to Gbps
- KB/s to MB/s
- KB/s to Tbps
- KB/s to GB/s
- KB/s to MiB/s
- Bps to B/s
- Kbps to B/s
- Mbps to B/s
- Gbps to B/s
- MB/s to B/s
- Tbps to B/s
- GB/s to B/s
- MiB/s to B/s
See all data transfer rate units.