Technology

Megabits vs. Megabytes: What You Need to Know

Both are units of digital information, but they have big differences when it comes to internet speeds.

One MB (megabyte) is equal to eight Mb (megabit). So, 1Mbps (megabit per second) is equal to 0.125MBps (megabyte per second).

MB refers to a mega byte , while Mbps refers to mega bits per second. A megabyte is equal to eight megabits. 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. 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..