Internet Speed Converter

Internet speeds are quoted in half a dozen different units, and they do not agree with each other until you convert them. Your provider sells you Mbps, your browser reports MB/s, your router boasts Gbps, and an old spec sheet somewhere still says Kbps. Our internet speed converter puts all of them in one place: enter a speed in Kbps, Mbps, Gbps, KB/s, MB/s or GB/s and every other unit fills in instantly — along with the one thing most converters leave out, a plain line telling you how long a 1 GB file would take at that speed.

If you do not know your speed yet, measure it first: the free test on the Speed Test UK homepage reports your connection in Mbps, ready to convert here into the units your downloads actually use.

How to Use This Internet Speed Converter

• Step 1: Enter your speed. Type the figure you have — from a provider’s advert, a speed test result, a router status page or a download window.
• Step 2: Choose its unit. Pick the unit that figure came in. Watch the small print: Mbps and MB/s look alike but differ eightfold.
• Step 3: Read the full table. All six units update together, plus how much data you could pull down in an hour at that speed.
• Step 4: Read the green line. It translates your speed into a 1 GB download time — the fastest sanity check on whether a package suits you.
• Or skip typing: the preset buttons set 36, 67, 150, 300 or 900 Mbps in one tap — the headline speeds of the packages UK providers sell most.

The Two Families of Speed Units

Every speed unit belongs to one of two families. The bit family — Kbps, Mbps, Gbps — is what connections are sold and advertised in. The steps between them are decimal: 1 Mbps is 1,000 Kbps, and 1 Gbps is 1,000 Mbps. The byte family — KB/s, MB/s, GB/s — is what your computer shows while data moves: download progress bars, Steam, browsers, copy dialogs. One byte is 8 bits, so crossing between the families means dividing or multiplying by 8.

That single fact generates almost every speed argument in Britain. A 67 Mbps package downloads at a maximum of 8.38 MB/s. Someone expecting “67” on the progress bar sees 8.4 and assumes a fault; someone who has done this conversion recognises a line working exactly as sold. Neither the provider’s number nor the computer’s number is lying — they are the same speed wearing different units.

One more quirk is worth knowing before you convert anything: Windows measures transfer rates in binary units but labels them MB/s, so its figures run about 5% lower than this converter’s decimal MB/s for the identical transfer. Steam and most browsers use decimal units and will match the table above exactly. If two programs on the same PC disagree slightly about a download speed, that labelling shortcut — not your broadband — is almost always the reason.

UK Package Speeds, Converted

The table inside the converter above covers the speeds that matter here, but it is worth pausing on what they are. Most UK homes are still on part fibre (FTTC), sold mainly at 36 Mbps and 67 Mbps — the sort of tiers the big Openreach-based providers such as BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Plusnet and Vodafone advertise as their standard and fast options. Full fibre (FTTP) starts around 150 Mbps, runs through 300 and 500 Mbps, and tops out for most households at 900 Mbps to 1 Gbps, the “gigabit” class also sold by Virgin Media on its own network. If you are comparing a deal, convert its headline Mbps into MB/s before you judge it: 900 Mbps sounds nine times 100 Mbps, and in download terms — 112.5 MB/s versus 12.5 MB/s — it genuinely is.

Worked Examples

“Steam says 8.4 MB/s — am I being throttled?”

Almost certainly not, if you pay for 67 Mbps. 67 ÷ 8 = 8.38 MB/s, so Steam is reporting your full line speed in byte units. The check takes five seconds in the converter above, and it settles one of the most common broadband complaints in the country. If your MB/s is far below your Mbps divided by 8 on a wired connection, though, that gap is real and worth investigating — start with a fresh test and our broadband speed test guide to testing properly.

“The advert says 1 Gbps. What will I actually see?”

1 Gbps is 1,000 Mbps, which is 125 MB/s at full stretch: a 1 GB file in about 8 seconds, around 450 GB in an hour. In practice, gigabit lines usually deliver 900–940 Mbps through real-world equipment, so expect roughly 113–118 MB/s — still enough to download a 100 GB game in about 15 minutes.

“My upload is 10 Mbps. Why does sending video take forever?”

Because 10 Mbps is 1.25 MB/s. A 2 GB video from your phone is 2,000 MB, and at 1.25 MB/s that is roughly 27 minutes. Upload speeds on part-fibre packages are a fraction of download speeds, and no conversion makes the number prettier — but knowing it explains the wait and tells you whether a full-fibre package with a faster upload is worth having.

Why Real Downloads Sit Below the Converted Figure

The converter gives you the ceiling: the most your line could carry. Real downloads usually land a little under it, for ordinary reasons. Every transfer carries overhead — the addressing and error-checking wrapped around the data itself — which typically costs a few per cent. Wi-Fi costs more: walls, distance and interference can easily halve what a device sees compared with a cable into the router, which is why providers and Ofcom’s home broadband advice both suggest testing wired before blaming the line. The server at the other end has limits too: a busy download source cannot feed a gigabit line at full rate no matter what you pay. And other people in the house share the same pipe — four simultaneous 4K streams can eat 100 Mbps between them.

One protection exists if reality stays far below the promise. Most major UK providers have signed Ofcom’s Broadband Speeds Code of Practice, which guarantees a minimum speed at sign-up and lets you leave without penalty if your provider cannot fix a line that keeps falling below it. Converting your test results into the same units as your contract is the first step in any such conversation — which is, in the end, what this page is for. The Thinkbroadband community keeps useful independent speed data if you want to see how your area compares.

What Each Speed Actually Feels Like

Numbers convert cleanly; experiences are murkier, so here is the same ladder in household terms. Every figure below is in Mbps, the units packages are sold in — convert any of them above to see the MB/s your progress bars will show.

Notice how quickly the benefit flattens. The jump from 36 to 67 Mbps changes what a family can do at 7pm; the jump from 300 to 900 mostly changes how long downloads take. Converting speeds honestly — including into download times — is how you avoid paying for capacity your household will never use.

Wi-Fi, Ethernet and Mobile Speeds Use the Same Units

The converter does not care where a speed comes from, because the units never change. Your router’s box will advertise wireless rates such as 1,200 Mbps or 2,400 Mbps: those are theoretical link rates under perfect conditions, not promises, and real throughput on Wi-Fi is often half the printed figure or less by the time walls and neighbours’ networks get involved. An Ethernet port rated at 1 Gbps will genuinely move data at close to that — about 118 MB/s in practice — which is why a cable still settles arguments about whether the line or the wireless is at fault.

Mobile data speaks the same language too. 4G in the UK typically delivers somewhere between 20 and 60 Mbps depending on signal and congestion; 5G in a good spot can run well past 100 Mbps and occasionally into the hundreds. When a speed test on your phone returns an Mbps figure, it drops into the converter above exactly like a broadband result — and the same divide-by-eight tells you the MB/s you will see when that connection downloads a file.

When You Only Need One Conversion

This page is the full toolkit — six units, presets, download times. Sometimes that is more than the job needs. If all you ever convert is the broadband pair, our Mbps to MB/s converter does just that one job with its own worked examples. If your question is really “how long will this file take on my connection”, the download time calculator takes any file size and any speed. And if the numbers you are wrestling with are file sizes rather than speeds — KB, MB, GB with no “/s” — the file size converter handles those, including the binary units Windows uses.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I convert Mbps to MB/s?

Divide by 8. There are 8 bits in a byte, broadband is sold in bits (Mbps) and downloads are displayed in bytes (MB/s). So 100 Mbps = 12.5 MB/s, 67 Mbps = 8.38 MB/s and 900 Mbps = 112.5 MB/s. To go the other way, multiply MB/s by 8.

How many Mbps are in a Gbps?

Exactly 1,000. Speed units step up decimally: 1 Gbps = 1,000 Mbps = 1,000,000 Kbps. A “gigabit” package is therefore a 1,000 Mbps package, and it downloads at up to 125 MB/s.

Why is my download speed lower than my package speed?

Usually it is not — it is the same speed in different units, eight times smaller on paper. If, after converting, your MB/s is still well below Mbps ÷ 8 on a wired connection, the likely causes are Wi-Fi losses, a slow server at the other end, other devices sharing the line, or a genuine line fault worth reporting.

Is Kbps still used anywhere?

Rarely for broadband, which left kilobits behind years ago — a modern 36 Mbps connection is 36,000 Kbps. You will still meet Kbps in audio bitrates (a good-quality MP3 is 320 Kbps), older mobile connections, and some router and streaming settings, which is why the converter keeps it.

What speed do I need for 4K streaming?

Around 25 Mbps per 4K stream, in the units providers sell — that is roughly 3.1 MB/s. An HD stream needs about 5–8 Mbps. A 67 Mbps part-fibre line can therefore carry two 4K streams with room to spare, while a busy house with several streams plus gaming and calls is where 150 Mbps and above earn their money.

Does converting work the same for upload speeds?

Yes — uploads are quoted in the same units and convert identically. A 20 Mbps upload is 2.5 MB/s; a 110 Mbps full-fibre upload is 13.75 MB/s. The conversion is symmetric even though UK packages are not: uploads are usually much slower than downloads except on some full-fibre tiers.

Convert Your Speed, Then Measure It

You now have every unit agreeing with every other. Convert your package speed above, note the MB/s it should produce, then run a real test on the Speed Test UK homepage and compare like with like. When the converted promise and the measured result match, your broadband is doing its job — and when they do not, you have the numbers to say exactly by how much.