Megabits to megabytes – and megabytes to megabits

Formula

Multiply the value in megabits by 0.125 to get megabytes.
MB = Mbit × 0.125

Multiply the value in megabytes by 8 to get megabits.
Mbit = MB × 8

How to convert megabits to megabytes

Type a value in the field above and the result is calculated instantly. Use the arrow button to swap direction, or pick other units from the lists.

About the units

Megabits. A megabit is a million bits, 125,000 bytes. The unit belongs to networks: broadband and mobile data are sold in megabits per second, and the EU open internet regulation requires the contract to explain the minimum, normally available, maximum and advertised speed – but names no unit, so the megabit is trade practice rather than law. The trap is that subscriptions are counted in bits and files in bytes: 100 megabits per second gives 12.5 megabytes per second.

Megabytes. A megabyte is a million bytes under the SI prefix mega. The binary counterpart, the mebibyte, is 1,048,576 bytes, 4.9% more, and the megabyte is the very example the American standards body NIST uses: memory makers mean 2²⁰ bytes, storage makers 10⁶. The unit measures photographs, apps, email attachments and mobile data allowances. Two traps. Megabyte against megabit is a factor of eight, so 100 megabits gives 12.5 megabytes per second. And operating systems often write MB while counting mebibytes.