MB/s to KB/s

1 megabyte per second equals 1,000 kilobytes per second exactly.

1 megabyte per second = 1,000 kilobytes per second

How to convert megabytes per second to kilobytes per second

To convert megabytes per second to kilobytes per second, multiply the number of megabytes per second by 1,000. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply kilobytes per second by 0.001.

kilobytes per second = megabytes per second × 1,000

Example: 10 megabytes per second = 10,000 kilobytes 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

Megabyte Per Second (MB/s)

ComputingCurrent unit

1,000,000 bytes per second (8 Mbps). Disk and download speeds are shown in MB/s.

Megabytes per second inherit all the confusion of the megabyte itself. The word has meant 1,000,000 bytes in networking, hard drives and DVDs, 1,048,576 bytes for memory under Microsoft Windows, and 1,024,000 bytes for the 3.5-inch floppy disk marketed as 1.44 MB, which actually held 1,474,560 bytes. In 1999 the IEC defined megabyte as 10⁶ bytes and mebibyte as 2²⁰ bytes, and by the end of 2009 the IEEE, EU, ISO and NIST had adopted that standard.

As a rate, 1 MB/s is 1,000,000 bytes per second, or 8 Mbit/s. File copies, game installers and disk benchmarks usually show MB/s, while internet plans use Mbit/s, so a 100 Mbit/s plan tops out near 12.5 MB/s. As a feel for size, about one minute of 128 kbit/s MP3 audio fits in roughly 1 MB, so a link carrying 1 MB/s moves about a minute of such audio every second.

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

Sources: Wikipedia: Megabyte; NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples; Wikipedia: Data-rate units

Kilobyte Per Second (kB/s)

ComputingCurrent unit

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

Related conversions

See all data transfer rate units.