| Name | Symbol | Multiple | |
|---|---|---|---|
| bit per second | bit/s | 1 | 1 |
| Metric prefixes (SI) | |||
| kilobit per second | kbit/s | 103 | 10001 |
| megabit per second | Mbit/s | 106 | 10002 |
| gigabit per second | Gbit/s | 109 | 10003 |
| terabit per second | Tbit/s | 1012 | 10004 |
| Binary prefixes (IEC 80000-13) | |||
| kibibit per second | Kibit/s | 210 | 10241 |
| mebibit per second | Mibit/s | 220 | 10242 |
| gibibit per second | Gibit/s | 230 | 10243 |
| tebibit per second | Tibit/s | 240 | 10244 |
Intelecommunications,data transfer rate is the average number ofbits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Commondata rate units are multiples ofbits per second (bit/s) andbytes per second (B/s). For example, the data rates of modern residential high-speed Internet connections are commonly expressed in megabits per second (Mbit/s).
TheISQ symbols for the bit and byte arebit andB, respectively. In the context of data-rate units, one byte consists of 8 bits, and is synonymous with the unitoctet. The abbreviation bps is often used to mean bit/s, so that when a1 Mbps connection is advertised, it usually means that the maximum achievable bandwidth is 1 Mbit/s (one million bits per second), which is 0.125 MB/s (megabyte per second), or about 0.1192 MiB/s (mebibyte per second). TheInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) uses the symbol b for bit.
In both theSI and ISQ, the prefix k stands forkilo, meaning 1000, while Ki is the symbol for thebinary prefixkibi-, meaning 1024. The binary prefixes were introduced in 1998 by theInternational Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and inIEEE 1541-2002 which was reaffirmed on 27 March 2008. The letter K is often used as a non-standard abbreviation for 1,024, especially in "KB" to mean KiB, thekilobyte in its binary sense. In the context of data rates, however, typically only decimal prefixes are used, and they have their standard SI interpretation.
In 1999, the IEC published Amendment 2 to "IEC 60027-2: Letter symbols to be used in electrical technology – Part 2: Telecommunications and electronics". This standard, approved in 1998, introduced the prefixes kibi-, mebi-, gibi-, tebi-, pebi-, and exbi- to be used in specifying binary multiples of a quantity. The name is derived from the first two letters of the original SI prefixes followed by bi (short forbinary). It also clarifies that the SI prefixes are used only to mean powers of 10 and never powers of 2.
These units are often used in a manner inconsistent with the IEC standard.
Kilobit per second (symbolkbit/s orkb/s, often abbreviated "kbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
Megabit per second (symbolMbit/s orMb/s, often abbreviated "Mbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
Gigabit per second (symbolGbit/s orGb/s, often abbreviated "Gbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
Terabit per second (symbolTbit/s orTb/s, sometimes abbreviated "Tbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
These units are often not used in the suggested ways; see§ Variations.
kilobyte per second (kB/s) (sometimes abbreviated "kBps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
megabyte per second (MB/s) (can be abbreviated as MBps) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
gigabyte per second (GB/s) (can be abbreviated as GBps) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
terabyte per second (TB/s) (can be abbreviated as TBps) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
| Name | Symbol | bit per second | byte per second | bit per second (formula) | byte per second (formula) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bit per second | bit/s | 1 | 0.125 | 1 | 1/8 |
| byte per second | B/s | 8 | 1 | 8 | 1 |
| kilobit per second | kbit/s | 1,000 | 125 | 103 | 1/8 × 103 |
| kibibit per second | Kibit/s | 1,024 | 128 | 210 | 27 |
| kilobyte per second | kB/s | 8,000 | 1,000 | 8 × 103 | 103 |
| kibibyte per second | KiB/s | 8,192 | 1,024 | 213 | 210 |
| megabit per second | Mbit/s | 1,000,000 | 125,000 | 106 | 1/8 × 106 |
| mebibit per second | Mibit/s | 1,048,576 | 131,072 | 220 | 217 |
| megabyte per second | MB/s | 8,000,000 | 1,000,000 | 8 × 106 | 106 |
| mebibyte per second | MiB/s | 8,388,608 | 1,048,576 | 223 | 220 |
| gigabit per second | Gbit/s | 1,000,000,000 | 125,000,000 | 109 | 1/8 × 109 |
| gibibit per second | Gibit/s | 1,073,741,824 | 134,217,728 | 230 | 227 |
| gigabyte per second | GB/s | 8,000,000,000 | 1,000,000,000 | 8 × 109 | 109 |
| gibibyte per second | GiB/s | 8,589,934,592 | 1,073,741,824 | 233 | 230 |
| terabit per second | Tbit/s | 1,000,000,000,000 | 125,000,000,000 | 1012 | 1/8 × 1012 |
| tebibit per second | Tibit/s | 1,099,511,627,776 | 137,438,953,472 | 240 | 237 |
| terabyte per second | TB/s | 8,000,000,000,000 | 1,000,000,000,000 | 8 × 1012 | 1012 |
| tebibyte per second | TiB/s | 8,796,093,022,208 | 1,099,511,627,776 | 243 | 240 |
| Quantity | Unit | bits per second | bytes per second | Field | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 56 | kbit/s | 56,000 | 7,000 | Networking | 56 kbit modem – 56,000 bit/s |
| 64 | kbit/s | 64,000 | 8,000 | Networking | 64 kbit/s in anISDN B channel or best quality, uncompressed telephone line. |
| 1,536 | kbit/s | 1,536,000 | 192,000 | Networking | 24 channels of telephone in the US, or a good VTCT1. |
| 10 | Mbit/s | 10,000,000 | 1,250,000 | Networking | 107 bit/s is the speed of classicEthernet: 10BASE2, 10BASE5, 10BASE-T |
| 10 | Mbit/s | 10,000,000 | 1,250,000 | Biology | Research suggests that the human retina transmits data to the brain at the rate of ca. 107 bit/s[1][2][dubious –discuss] |
| 54 | Mbit/s | 54,000,000 | 6,750,000 | Networking | 802.11g,Wireless G LAN |
| 100 | Mbit/s | 100,000,000 | 12,500,000 | Networking | Fast Ethernet |
| 600 | Mbit/s | 600,000,000 | 75,000,000 | Networking | 802.11n, Wireless N LAN |
| 1 | Gbit/s | 1,000,000,000 | 125,000,000 | Networking | 1 Gigabit Ethernet |
| 10 | Gbit/s | 10,000,000,000 | 1,250,000,000 | Networking | 10 Gigabit Ethernet |
| 100 | Gbit/s | 100,000,000,000 | 12,500,000,000 | Networking | 100 Gigabit Ethernet |
| 1 | Tbit/s | 1,000,000,000,000 | 125,000,000,000 | Networking | SEA-ME-WE 4submarine communications cable – 1.28 terabits per second[3] |
| 4 | kbit/s | 4,000 | 500 | Audio data | minimum achieved for encoding recognizable speech (using special-purposespeech codecs) |
| 8 | kbit/s | 8,000 | 1,000 | Audio data | low bit ratetelephone quality |
| 32 | kbit/s | 32,000 | 4,000 | Audio data | MW quality and ADPCM voice in telephony, doubling the capacity of a 30 chan link to 60 ch. |
| 128 | kbit/s | 128,000 | 16,000 | Audio data | 128 kbit/sMP3 – 128,000 bit/s |
| 192 | kbit/s | 192,000 | 24,000 | Audio data | 192 kbit/sMP3 – 192,000 bit/s |
| 1,411.2 | kbit/s | 1,411,200 | 176,400 | Audio data | CD audio (uncompressed, 16 bit samples × 44.1kHz × 2 channels) |
| 2 | Mbit/s | 2,000,000 | 250,000 | Video data | 30 channels of telephone audio or a Video Tele-Conference atVHS quality |
| 8 | Mbit/s | 8,000,000 | 1,000,000 | Video data | DVD quality |
| 27 | Mbit/s | 27,000,000 | 3,375,000 | Video data | HDTV quality |
| 1.244 | Gbit/s | 1,244,000,000 | 155,500,000 | Networking | OC-24, a 1.244 Gbit/sSONET data channel |
| 9.953 | Gbit/s | 9,953,000,000 | 1,244,125,000 | Networking | OC-192, a 9.953 Gbit/sSONET data channel |
| 39.813 | Gbit/s | 39,813,000,000 | 4,976,625,000 | Networking | OC-768, a 39.813 Gbit/sSONET data channel, the fastest in current use |
| 60 | MB/s | 480,000,000 | 60,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | USB 2.0 High-Speed |
| 98.3 | MB/s | 786,432,000 | 98,304,000 | Computer data interfaces | FireWire IEEE 1394b-2002 S800 |
| 120 | MB/s | 960,000,000 | 120,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | Harddrive read, Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103Uj[4] |
| 133 | MB/s | 1,064,000,000 | 133,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | Parallel ATA UDMA 6 |
| 133 | MB/s | 1,064,000,000 | 133,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | PCI 32-bit at 33 MHz (standard configuration) |
| 188 | MB/s | 1,504,000,000 | 188,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | SATA I 1.5 Gbit/s – First generation |
| 375 | MB/s | 3,000,000,000 | 375,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | SATA II 3 Gbit/s – Second generation |
| 500 | MB/s | 4,000,000,000 | 500,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | PCI Express x1 v2.0 |
| 5.0 | Gbit/s | 5,000,000,000 | 625,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | USB 3.0 SuperSpeed - a.k.a.USB 3.1 Gen1 |
| 750 | MB/s | 6,000,000,000 | 750,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | SATA III 6 Gbit/s – Third generation |
| 1,067 | MB/s | 8,533,333,333 | 1,066,666,667 | Computer data interfaces | PCI-X 64 bit 133 MHz |
| 10 | Gbit/s | 10,000,000,000 | 1,250,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | USB 3.1 SuperSpeed+ - a.k.a. USB 3.1 Gen2 |
| 1,250 | MB/s | 10,000,000,000 | 1,250,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | Thunderbolt |
| 2,500 | MB/s | 20,000,000,000 | 2,500,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | Thunderbolt 2 |
| 5,000 | MB/s | 40,000,000,000 | 5,000,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | Thunderbolt 3 |
| 8,000 | MB/s | 64,000,000,000 | 8,000,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | PCI Express x16 v2.0 |
| 12,000 | MB/s | 96,000,000,000 | 12,000,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | InfiniBand 12X QDR |
| 16,000 | MB/s | 128,000,000,000 | 16,000,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | PCI Express x16 v3.0 |