Bits to Bytes Converter

Common questions

How many bits are in a byte?

Eight. A byte is eight bits, so bytes = bits / 8 and bits = bytes x 8. That puts 8 bits at 1 byte, 16 bits at 2 bytes, 64 bits at 8 bytes and 8,192 bits at 1,024 bytes. The factor here is exactly one eighth, a power of two, so a bit count that divides by 8 comes back as a whole number of bytes rather than as 0.99999, and the answers below the headline are computed from that same factor.

What is the formula for bits to bytes?

bytes = bits / 8. Type the bit count into the From box, with or without thousands separators, and the byte figure updates as you type: 1,000 bits is 125 bytes, 5,000,000 bits is 625,000 bytes and 1,000,000,000 bits is 125,000,000 bytes. Exponent notation is accepted as well, so 5e6 is read as 5,000,000. In the other direction bits = bytes x 8, and the swap button between the two boxes sets that direction up without a reload.

How do I convert megabits to megabytes, for a 100 Mbps connection?

Enter the amount in bits, because the From menu carries one bit unit and the rest of the list is byte units. A 100 Mbps link moves 100,000,000 bits each second, and this page turns that into 12,500,000 bytes, 12,500 kB, 12.5 MB and 11.9209289551 MiB, so the per second figure is 12.5 MB. The time unit is not part of the arithmetic: divide the bit rate by 8 and the answer is the byte rate over the same second.

Why does 1 bit come back as 0.125 bytes?

Because a bit is one eighth of a byte, and 1 / 8 is 0.125. Sub byte answers are what the arithmetic gives: 2 bits is 0.25 bytes and 4 bits, a nibble, is 0.5 bytes. Real storage and memory are still handed out in whole bytes, so a 4 bit value occupies a byte on disk; the converter reports the quantity, not the allocation. Enter 8 bits, or any multiple of 8, and the byte figure is whole again.

Is a kilobyte on this page 1,000 bytes or 1,024?

Both, labelled apart in the same list. 8,192 bits is 1,024 bytes, which appears as 1.024 kB under the decimal definition drive makers use and as exactly 1 KiB, the kibibyte, under the binary one an operating system usually means. The split repeats at every step: 8,000,000 bits is exactly 1 MB and 0.953674316406 MiB, and 8,000,000,000 bits is exactly 1 GB and 0.931322574615 GiB. Nothing has to be switched on to see both.

Why is a small answer written as 1.25e-7?

Because anything below one millionth is printed in exponential form instead of a row of leading zeroes. One bit is 0.000125 kB, which prints as a decimal, but 1.25e-7 MB and 1.25e-10 GB, which do not. Results are shown to 12 significant digits, so 100,000,000 bits reads 11.9209289551 MiB. If a tiny figure is not useful, pick a smaller unit in the To menu: bytes and kilobytes stay readable at these sizes.

Can I convert bytes back to bits here?

Yes. Press the swap button between the two boxes and the page becomes bytes to bits: 1 byte gives 8 bits, 1,024 bytes gives 8,192 bits and 1,000,000 bytes gives 8,000,000 bits. Both unit menus stay open either way, so the same figure goes to kB, MB, GB, TB or the binary KiB, MiB, GiB and TiB without leaving the page, and each row under the answer has its own Copy button.

Why does the page open on bits and bytes when I last converted something else?

Because a page that names a pair should show that pair. This one sets Bit and Byte on arrival, ahead of whatever the converter last remembered, and it leaves the main unit converter alone: go back to the converter itself and it is still on the pair you left it on. The number you last typed does come with you, since it is usually the one you are still working on.

Is anything I type sent anywhere?

No. The conversion is arithmetic against a table of factors that ships with the page, so it runs in your browser with nothing uploaded and no account, and it keeps working with no network connection once the page has loaded.