Byte per second to Mebibyte per second
Bps
MiBps
Conversion History
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Quick Reference Table (Byte per second to Mebibyte per second)
| Byte per second (Bps) | Mebibyte per second (MiBps) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.00000095367431640625 |
| 100 | 0.000095367431640625 |
| 7,000 | 0.00667572021484375 |
| 125,000 | 0.11920928955078125 |
| 1,000,000 | 0.95367431640625 |
| 12,500,000 | 11.920928955078125 |
About Byte per second (Bps)
A byte per second (B/s or Bps) is the base byte-based unit of data transfer rate, equal to 8 bits per second. While ISPs advertise in bits per second, download managers, operating systems, and file transfer tools display speeds in bytes per second — a direct measure of how quickly usable file data arrives. The conversion between bits and bytes is constant: divide Mbps by 8 to get MB/s. At 1 B/s, transferring a 1 MB file would take about 11.5 days.
An old dial-up connection at 56 kbps delivered roughly 7,000 B/s (7 kB/s) of actual file data. USB 2.0 maxes out at about 60,000,000 B/s (60 MB/s).
About Mebibyte per second (MiBps)
A mebibyte per second (MiB/s) equals 1,048,576 bytes per second and is the binary unit most commonly seen in operating system disk and memory bandwidth reports. Linux tools like dd, rsync, and hdparm report I/O speeds in MiB/s. Windows Task Manager and Resource Monitor use MB/s, which is decimal. A USB 2.0 high-speed connection peaks at about 60 MiB/s; a SATA SSD reads at 500–600 MiB/s; an NVMe SSD reaches 3,500–7,000 MiB/s.
Running dd on Linux to test disk speed shows results in MiB/s. A SATA III SSD typically reads at around 550 MiB/s.
Byte per second – Frequently Asked Questions
Why is a byte the fundamental unit of file storage but not of network speed?
Files are stored in bytes because CPUs address memory in byte-sized (8-bit) chunks — the smallest unit a program can read or write. Networks measure in bits because physical signals on a wire or fiber are serial: one bit at a time, clocked at a specific frequency. A 1 GHz signal produces 1 Gbps, not 1 GBps. The two worlds evolved independently and neither adopted the other's convention, leaving users to divide by 8 forever.
Is a byte always 8 bits?
In modern computing, yes — a byte is universally 8 bits. Historically, some architectures used 6, 7, or 9-bit bytes, which is why the unambiguous term "octet" exists in networking standards. But for all practical bandwidth conversions today, 1 byte = 8 bits.
Why is actual file download speed always less than the connection speed in bytes?
Network protocols add overhead — TCP headers, encryption (TLS), error correction, and packet framing all consume bandwidth without contributing to file data. A 100 Mbps connection might deliver 11 MB/s instead of the theoretical 12.5 MB/s because 10–15% goes to protocol overhead.
How many bytes per second does USB 3.0 actually transfer?
USB 3.0 has a theoretical maximum of 625 MB/s (5 Gbps ÷ 8), but real-world sustained transfers hit 300–400 MB/s due to protocol overhead and controller limitations. USB 3.2 Gen 2 doubles this to about 700–900 MB/s in practice.
What came first — the bit or the byte?
The bit came first, coined by Claude Shannon in 1948. The byte was introduced at IBM in the mid-1950s by Werner Buchholz to describe the smallest addressable group of bits in the IBM Stretch computer. Originally it could be any size; the 8-bit byte became standard with the IBM System/360 in 1964.
Mebibyte per second – Frequently Asked Questions
Why does dd report in MiB/s while manufacturers advertise in MB/s?
dd uses binary units because Linux filesystems work in binary block sizes (4 KiB, etc.). Drive manufacturers use decimal MB/s because it makes speeds look about 5% higher and aligns with their decimal capacity marketing. A "550 MB/s" SSD shows roughly 524 MiB/s in dd.
How do I benchmark my disk speed in MiB/s on Linux?
Run "dd if=/dev/zero of=testfile bs=1M count=1024 oflag=direct" and it will report write speed in MiB/s. For read speed, use "dd if=testfile of=/dev/null bs=1M". The oflag=direct flag bypasses filesystem cache to measure actual disk performance.
Is 550 MiB/s the same as 550 MB/s?
No — 550 MiB/s is about 577 MB/s, and 550 MB/s is about 524 MiB/s. The ~5% difference means an SSD advertised at 550 MB/s will show around 524 MiB/s in Linux tools. It is not a defect or false advertising, just different unit systems measuring the same physical speed.
What MiB/s should I expect from a RAID array?
A RAID 0 stripe of two SATA SSDs gives roughly 1,000–1,100 MiB/s sequential reads. Four NVMe SSDs in RAID 0 can hit 12,000–14,000 MiB/s. RAID 5/6 arrays sacrifice some write speed for redundancy — expect 70–90% of raw stripe performance on writes.
Why is random I/O speed so much lower than sequential MiB/s?
Sequential reads let the drive stream data from contiguous locations, maximising throughput. Random I/O forces the controller to seek different addresses, adding latency per operation. An NVMe SSD might do 7,000 MiB/s sequential but only 50–80 MiB/s random (at 4 KiB block size), because the bottleneck shifts from bandwidth to IOPS.