Why are Mbps and MB/s different?

Mbps is megabits per second; MB/s is megabytes per second. One byte is eight bits, so 80 Mbps equals a theoretical 10 MB/s before reductions.

Should I enter advertised or measured speed?

Measured transfer speed usually gives a better estimate. If you enter measured speed, use 0% reduction to avoid subtracting the same loss twice.

Yes, especially for many small files or protocols with repeated round trips. This calculator models sustained throughput and does not separately model setup latency.

Developer Tools

File Transfer Time Calculator

Estimate upload, download, backup, or copy time from file size, transfer speed, and an adjustable throughput reduction.

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About File Transfer Time Calculator

Estimate transfer time

The calculator converts file size to bits and divides it by effective bits per second. Decimal and binary file-size units are supported, along with bit-per-second and byte-per-second speed units.

Account for effective throughput

The reduction setting lowers nominal speed to model protocol overhead, congestion, wireless conditions, storage limits, or endpoint performance. If you already know measured throughput, enter it and use 0% reduction.

An estimate, not a completion guarantee

Actual transfer time can change with latency, server limits, retransmissions, competing traffic, compression, caching, and storage speed. The presets are examples rather than fixed protocol values.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Why are Mbps and MB/s different?: Mbps is megabits per second; MB/s is megabytes per second. One byte is eight bits, so 80 Mbps equals a theoretical 10 MB/s before reductions.
Q. Should I enter advertised or measured speed?: Measured transfer speed usually gives a better estimate. If you enter measured speed, use 0% reduction to avoid subtracting the same loss twice.
Q. Does latency matter?: Yes, especially for many small files or protocols with repeated round trips. This calculator models sustained throughput and does not separately model setup latency.

Sources and specifications

IEC: prefixes for binary multiples

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