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Data Transfer Rate Units
Data transfer rates measure how quickly data moves between systems. The key distinction is between bits (b) and bytes (B) — network speeds are typically measured in bits per second (bps), while file sizes and storage speeds use bytes per second (B/s). 1 byte = 8 bits.
Unit Conversion Table
| Unit | Symbol | Bits per second |
|---|---|---|
| Kilobit per second | Kbps | 1,000 |
| Megabit per second | Mbps | 1,000,000 |
| Gigabit per second | Gbps | 1,000,000,000 |
| Kilobyte per second | KB/s | 8,000 |
| Megabyte per second | MB/s | 8,000,000 |
| Gigabyte per second | GB/s | 8,000,000,000 |
Real-World Transfer Speeds
| Connection | Speed | 1GB file time |
|---|---|---|
| 3G mobile | ~7 Mbps | ~19 minutes |
| 4G LTE | ~50 Mbps | ~2.7 minutes |
| 5G | ~300 Mbps | ~27 seconds |
| 100 Mbps fiber | 100 Mbps | ~80 seconds |
| 1 Gbps fiber | 1000 Mbps | ~8 seconds |
| USB 3.0 | 5 Gbps | ~1.6 seconds |
| NVMe SSD | ~7 GB/s | ~0.14 seconds |