kbps to Mbps converter (and Mbps to kbps)
Divide kbps by 1,000 to get Mbps, and multiply Mbps by 1,000 to get kbps. A 320 kbps music stream is 0.32 Mbps, and Twitch's recommendation of up to 6,000 kbps for 1080p60 is 6 Mbps of upload.
Tip: paste a reading like “12.4 MB/s” and the unit is picked for you.
1 kbps equals:
- bps1,000
- kbps1
- Mbps0.001
- Gbps0.000001
- B/s125
- kB/s0.125
- MB/s0.000125
- GB/s1.25E-7
- MiB/s0.000119209
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Formula
1 kbps = 1,000 bits and 1 Mbps = 1,000,000 bits, so:
Common conversions
kbps → Mbps
| kbps | Mbps |
|---|---|
| 56 kbps | 0.056 Mbps |
| 128 kbps | 0.128 Mbps |
| 256 kbps | 0.256 Mbps |
| 512 kbps | 0.512 Mbps |
| 768 kbps | 0.768 Mbps |
| 1,000 kbps | 1 Mbps |
| 1,500 kbps | 1.5 Mbps |
| 3,000 kbps | 3 Mbps |
| 6,000 kbps | 6 Mbps |
| 8,000 kbps | 8 Mbps |
Mbps → kbps
| Mbps | kbps |
|---|---|
| 0.5 Mbps | 500 kbps |
| 1 Mbps | 1,000 kbps |
| 2.5 Mbps | 2,500 kbps |
| 5 Mbps | 5,000 kbps |
| 6 Mbps | 6,000 kbps |
| 10 Mbps | 10,000 kbps |
| 20 Mbps | 20,000 kbps |
| 50 Mbps | 50,000 kbps |
Small, steady streams measured in kbps
Kilobits per second is the unit for things that send a trickle of data for a long time. Converting to Mbps shows how little of a modern plan they use.
- Music and podcasts. Audio is labelled 128, 256 or 320 kbps. The highest common music quality, 320 kbps, is 0.32 Mbps, and an hour of it is 144 MB of data.
- IoT and telemetry. A hundred sensors each sending 16 kbps add up to 1,600 kbps, or 1.6 Mbps, still less than one 1080p video stream at Netflix's 5 Mbps.
- Legacy lines. A 56 kbps dial-up modem is 0.056 Mbps; an old 768 kbps DSL line is 0.768 Mbps. Some rural and older copper services are still quoted in kbps.
What an old line speed feels like today
A kbps figure is easier to judge as a waiting time. Here is how long a 5 MB photo (40,000 kilobits) takes at full speed:
| Connection | In Mbps | 5 MB photo |
|---|---|---|
| 56 kbps dial-up | 0.056 Mbps | about 11 min 54 s |
| 768 kbps DSL | 0.768 Mbps | about 52 s |
| 1,500 kbps DSL | 1.5 Mbps | about 27 s |
| 8,000 kbps | 8 Mbps | 5 s |
| 100,000 kbps | 100 Mbps | 0.4 s |
Time = kilobits ÷ kbps. For any other size or speed, the download time calculator does the division.
Mbps to kbps: filling in an encoder bitrate
Streaming and recording software asks for bitrate in kbps, while your upload is quoted in Mbps. Convert the upload to kbps to see how much room the stream leaves:
- 1080p60 on a 10 Mbps upload. 6,000 kbps of video plus 160 kbps of audio is 6,160 kbps, about 62% of 10,000 kbps. There is little left for a video call at the same time.
- A 20 Mbps upload. 20,000 kbps carries that stream plus a 1080p Zoom call (3,000 kbps up) with more than half to spare.
- A 5 Mbps upload. 5,000 kbps cannot carry a 6,000 kbps stream; drop the encoder to around 3,500 kbps and keep other uploads quiet.
Never set the bitrate to the whole measured upload: speed tests show a peak, and dropped frames follow when the line dips. The upload speed calculator adds streams, calls, cameras and backups together.
Pitfall: kbps is not kB/s, and 1 Mbps is not 1,024 kbps
Lower-case b means bits. A download window showing 320 kB/s is moving bytes, which is 2,560 kbps, eight times more than a 320 kbps audio stream. Readings in kilobytes per second belong in kB/s to Mbps, and throttle settings that expect raw bytes per second in Mbps to bytes per second. Bit rates are always decimal, so 1 Mbps is exactly 1,000 kbps; the 1,024 steps belong to binary byte units such as KiB. For every unit at once, including B/s and MiB/s, use the bytes to Mbps converter, and for the top of the scale, Gbps to Mbps.
Frequently asked questions
How many Mbps is 1,000 kbps?
1,000 kbps is exactly 1 Mbps. Network units use decimal prefixes, so divide kbps by 1,000.
How many kbps is 6 Mbps?
6 Mbps is 6,000 kbps. Multiply megabits per second by 1,000.
Is 1 Mbps equal to 1,024 kbps?
No. Bit rates use decimal prefixes, so 1 Mbps is exactly 1,000 kbps. The 1,024 steps apply to binary byte units such as KiB and MiB.
Is 128 kbps fast?
For audio it is a common lower-quality bitrate. As an internet connection it is very slow: 0.128 Mbps, or 16 kB/s, so a 1 MB file takes over a minute.
How much data does a 320 kbps stream use per hour?
320,000 bits per second × 3,600 seconds ÷ 8 = 144,000,000 bytes, or 144 MB per hour.