Data Transfer Rate Converter

Converts between every network and storage speed unit — bps up to Tbps, B/s up to GB/s. The whole reason this tool needs to exist: network speeds and storage speeds are measured in different units, and mixing them up produces a number that's off by a factor of 8.

The single most important thing to get right

Networking uses bits (lowercase b). Storage and file sizes use bytes (uppercase B). One byte is 8 bits. A "1 Gbps" internet connection moves data at roughly 125 MB/s, not 1,000 MB/s — and that factor-of-8 confusion trips up students and working IT professionals alike, usually the first time someone compares an ISP's advertised speed against how fast a file actually downloads.

Real numbers worth having memorised

• USB 3.0 — 5 Gbps = 625 MB/s theoretical
• SATA III SSD — 6 Gbps = 750 MB/s theoretical, 500–550 MB/s is what you'll actually see
• NVMe PCIe 4.0 x4 — 64 Gbps = 8 GB/s theoretical, ~7 GB/s realistic
• 10GbE — 10 Gbps = 1.25 GB/s
• 100GbE — 100 Gbps = 12.5 GB/s, the kind of link you'll see between racks in a data centre, not on a desk

Why manufacturers pick the units they pick

Storage vendors quote MB/s because the number looks better — "3,500 MB/s" reads as more impressive than the equivalent 28 Gbps, even though it's the same figure. Network gear is rated in Mbps or Gbps by convention. The moment you're comparing the two directly — sizing network-attached storage against the network link it sits behind, say — convert everything to the same unit first, or you'll end up "confirming" a bottleneck that doesn't actually exist, or missing one that does.