Enter the file size and your connection speed to see how long a download or upload will take. Internet plans are sold in megabits per second (Mbps), while file sizes are in megabytes: there are 8 bits in a byte, and that’s handled for you.
| Speed | Time |
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Time = file size ÷ speed, once both are in the same units. Connection speeds are quoted in bits per second, and file sizes in bytes, and 1 byte = 8 bits. A 50 GB game is 50 × 8 = 400 gigabits; at 100 Mbps (0.1 gigabits per second) that’s 400 ÷ 0.1 = 4,000 seconds, or 1 hour 6 minutes 40 seconds.
A quick rule: divide Mbps by 8 to get megabytes per second. 100 Mbps moves at most 12.5 MB each second.
Real downloads rarely reach the full advertised speed, because of protocol overhead, Wi-Fi interference and other devices sharing the line. Pick an overhead level for a more realistic estimate.
KB, MB, GB and TB here are the decimal units used by internet providers and most app stores (1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes). Windows and some tools use binary units, labelled KiB, MiB and GiB here (1 GiB = 1,073,741,824 bytes), which are about 7% bigger.
1 GB is 8 gigabits, or 8,000 megabits. At 100 Mbps that takes 80 seconds, or 1 minute 20 seconds in ideal conditions. Expect nearer 1.5 minutes over Wi-Fi.
Mbps is megabits per second, the unit internet plans use. MB/s is megabytes per second, the unit many download managers and game launchers show. 1 MB/s = 8 Mbps, so a 100 Mbps connection tops out around 12.5 MB/s.
Advertised speeds are a maximum. Wi-Fi signal, other devices on the network, busy times of day, and the speed of the server you’re downloading from can all slow things down. A wired connection usually gets closest to the full speed.
Yes. Enter your upload speed instead. Many home connections, especially cable and ADSL, upload far more slowly than they download, so large uploads can take many times longer.
Use “What speed do I need?”, enter 100 GB and 8 hours: you need about 28 Mbps in ideal conditions, or around 35 Mbps allowing for Wi-Fi overhead.
