The computer industry loves its jargon, which can seem uniquely designed to drive you up a wall. Case in point: Megabits and megabytes. Both refer to units of digital information, but the difference is subtle enough to cause plenty of confusion. Don’t worry — we’ll clear it all up so you never get scolded on Reddit again.
Megabits vs. Megabytes
It all starts with bits and bytes. A bit is the most basic unit of information in computing. It can be a one or zero, true or false, yes or no. A byte is a collection of eight bits. Why eight? It takes eight bits to produce one unit of text, like a “J” or “#”. Bytes are how we measure the size of files like movies, images or documents. Bits are also measures of size, but they’re used in relation to speed. You’ll almost never hear someone talk about “bits” unless there’s a “per second” right after it.
Now let’s add the “mega” part to the equation. Because bits and bytes are so small — just a single letter or number — they’re not really useful when we’re talking about bigger files like images or videos. “Mega” simply means “1 million.” One megabit is 1 million bits, and the same goes for megabytes.
| Unit | Equal to | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Bit | One bit | 1 or 0 |
| Byte | Eight bits | One letter |
| Megabit (Mb) | 1,000,000 bits | 125-page Word doc |
| Megabyte (MB) | 8,000,000 bits | 250 HD photos |
Capitalization is everything
A lot of the confusion around megabits and megabytes happens when they’re abbreviated. A megabit is written as Mb, while a megabyte is MB. Internet speeds are always referred to as Mbps or megabits per second. Megabytes per second is almost always used to refer to how quickly a storage device can transfer data, like when a hard disk reads data or a file is uploaded to the cloud using an Ethernet connection. Megabytes per second is written as MBps or MB/s.
Why it matters
It’s important to know the difference between megabits and megabytes, primarily when you’re discussing internet speeds. It’s standard to use megabits per second, but you could hear someone refer to their 50 megabyte-per-second connection and consider it on the slow side. In fact, it’s equivalent to 400 megabits per second, which is quite speedy.
FAQs
One MB (megabyte) is equal to eight Mb (megabit). So, 1Mbps (megabit per second) is equal to 0.125MBps (megabyte per second).
Which is bigger, MB or Mbps?
MB refers to a megabyte, while Mbps refers to megabits per second. A megabyte is equal to eight megabits.
Is Wi-Fi a megabit or megabyte?
Megabits per second (Mbps) are always used when referring to Wi-Fi speeds. You would use megabytes per second (MB/s) to refer to the rate at which data could be transferred to a storage device.
Is 100Mbps fast internet?
100Mbps (megabits per second) is considered an average download speed for internet service. In fact, it’s the bare minimum to meet the FCC’s definition of broadband internet speed. However, 100Mbps upload speed would be considered very fast — the FCC’s minimum requirement for upload speed is only 20Mbps.
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