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megabit to gigabyte - How to convert Mb to GB
Internet providers often talk about speed in megabits, while file sizes are measured in gigabytes. The megabit to gigabyte conversion helps bridge that gap so users can better understand how network speeds affect downloads and storage.
What is a megabit (Mb)?
A megabit (Mb) equals 1 000 000 bits in decimal or 1 048 576 bits in binary. Megabits are standard in measuring bandwidth and transfer speeds, such as Mb/s internet connections.
What is a gigabyte (GB)?
A gigabyte (GB) equals 1 000 000 000 bytes in decimal or 1 073 741 824 bytes in binary. GBs are commonly used to measure file sizes, device storage, and application capacity.
Conversion formula
Since 1 byte = 8 bits, the formula is:
Gigabyte (GB) = Megabit (Mb) ÷ 8 ÷ 1 000
Simplified:
1 Mb = 0.000125 GB
Example:8 000 Mb ÷ 8 ÷ 1 000 = 1 GB
If you want to make conversions like this quickly, our Data Storage Converter is the easiest way. For other everyday calculations, the Conversion Tools page brings multiple unit types together in one place.
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Do you know?
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A 100 Mb/s internet speed equals 12.5 MB/s, which is about 0.0125 GB every second.
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Downloading a 5 GB movie on a 200 Mb/s connection takes about 3.5 minutes.
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In the late 1990s, most users had speeds under 1 Mb/s — making a single GB download nearly impossible.
When Megabits Met Gigabytes
The growth of broadband created the need to translate megabit speeds into gigabyte downloads. For example, in the early 2000s, music albums averaged 100 MB each. With 1 Mb/s internet, downloading an album took over 10 minutes. As speeds rose into the hundreds of Mb/s, those same albums could be transferred in seconds, and entire gigabyte-sized movies became practical to download.
This relationship became even more important with the rise of cloud services. Businesses moving files measured in gigabytes needed to know how many megabits per second were required to finish uploads on time. Gamers and streamers also rely on this conversion daily to estimate download times for massive titles or updates.
The Mb to GB conversion makes internet speed meaningful in real-world terms — connecting what’s advertised on a plan to the gigabytes stored on your device.
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When Speed Becomes Storage
The conversion from megabit to gigabyte may seem like technical math, but it defines how we interact with digital content. It explains why downloads take minutes instead of hours and why faster speeds feel so transformative.
Every gigabyte stored is made possible by millions of megabits transmitted. That bridge is what turns streaming, gaming, and cloud storage into seamless parts of daily life.
