megabytes per second (MBps)

What is megabytes per second?

Megabytes per second (MBps) is a unit of measurement for data transfer speed to and from a computer storage device.

Originally, a byte was a collection of eight bits or individual characters -- the smallest number of bits that were able to express a number, letter or character in binary form. A megabyte is a collection of 2 to the 20th power bytes, or 1,048,576 bytes in decimal notation. MBps is the number of megabytes of data transferred over a single second.

What MBps measures

As a unit of measurement for the transfer of computer information, MBps measures data in binary form, the language used by most computers to interpret and synthesize information. The binary system in mathematics translates regular numerals and characters to a system that a computer can understand and that can easily be transferred electronically.

The system is made up of groups of digits that are all either ones or zeros and in combinations of sets of eight. The varying combinations of sequences of bits are codes that correlate to different numerals, letters and characters.

Megabytes per second is also a way to measure a data transfer rate, or the volume of file data that can pass between two points over a unit of time. If a path has more bandwidth, more data is able to travel along it, leading to a higher data transfer rate. How quickly the data arrives, regardless of volume, is referred to as its transfer speed.

Similarly, connection speed refers to the amount of time it takes and how quickly data is transferred between a computer or device and the internet itself. It is also referred to as download speed, bandwidth or receiving speed.

Average download time is another commonly measured aspect of computing. This refers to how quickly a file can be downloaded to a device, measured several times and averaged, varying greatly depending on the file size.

MBps may measure all these types of transfer speeds.

Megabytes per second vs. megabits per second

MBps is a different digital data measurement unit than Mbps (megabits per second). The basic differences are as follows:

• Megabytes per second generally refers to upload and download speeds. Each byte is made up of eight bits. A megabyte is made up of 1,000,000 bytes.
• Megabits per second measures the file size of data transferred per second over a channel. A megabit is the equivalent of 125 kilobytes or 125,000 bytes.

Uses of megabytes per second

Some common instances in computing where a data transfer speed might be measured in MBps include video calls, streaming videos, browsing websites, sending emails with many data or attachments, or making calls over the internet.

Conversion table

The following table shows how MBps compares to other units of measurement, such as Mbps and kilobytes per second (KBps).

The following formulas can also be used to convert between megabytes and megabits:

Editor's note: This article was revised in 2023 by TechTarget editors to improve the reader experience.