Mibit/s to Mbps
1 mebibit per second equals 1.048576 megabits per second exactly.
How to convert mebibits per second to megabits per second
To convert mebibits per second to megabits per second, multiply the number of mebibits per second by 1.048576. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply megabits per second by 0.9536743164 (rounded).
megabits per second = mebibits per second × 1.048576
Example: 10 mebibits per second = 10.48576 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
Mebibit Per Second (Mibit/s)
1,048,576 bits per second.
Mebibits per second sit one binary step above the kibibit and measure the speeds of links and streams when a strict power of two is wanted. Mebi comes from mega with the same bi ending, and the quantity is 2 to the power 20, or 1,048,576. The IEC prefixes were meant to end a long confusion in computing, where kilo, mega and giga had been used for powers of 2 even though the SI gives them powers of 10.
The arithmetic is simple. One mebibit per second is 1,048,576 bits per second, which equals 131,072 bytes per second and is about 4.86 percent more than a decimal megabit per second. Wikipedia's article on data-rate units notes that decimal prefixes are typically used for data rates, so the mebibit per second is a precise but uncommon alternative. The IEEE adopted the prefix names in 1996 with the symbols Ki, Mi and Gi, and its standard 1541-2002 became a full-use standard in 2005.
1 mebibit per second = 1,048,576 bits per second (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Binary prefix; Wikipedia: Data-rate units; NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples
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 Mibit/s (reverse)
- Mibit/s to bps
- Mibit/s to Kbps
- Mibit/s to Gbps
- Mibit/s to MB/s
- Bps to Mbps
- Kbps to Mbps
- Gbps 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
- Gibit/s to Mbps
- KiB/s to Mbps
See all data transfer rate units.