Byte vs bit — the storage-vs-speed divide
A byte is 8 bits. Network speeds are in bits; storage is in bytes. The case matters.
1 B = 8 bits (storage is reported in bytes)
1 bit is one binary digit (networks are reported in bits)
A bit is one binary digit (0 or 1). A byte is 8 bits. The distinction matters because two parallel conventions exist in computing:
| Domain | Reported in | Why | |---|---|---| | File size | bytes (B, KB, MB, GB) | Storage devices address bytes | | RAM size | bytes (KB, MB, GB) | Memory cells are bytes | | Network speed | bits per second (bps, kbps, Mbps) | Bit-rate is the underlying physical layer unit | | Disk interface | bytes (sectors are 512 or 4096 bytes) | The physical block size |
When you see "your internet is 100 Mbps", that's 100 megabits per second = 12.5 megabytes per second. The "MiB mystery" is why downloads feel slower than the speed test promised.
When buying storage, "1 TB SSD" is 10¹² bytes. When the OS reports the same disk, you see ~931 GiB. Same disk, different units (decimal SI TB vs binary GiB).
The byte/bit distinction also explains file-size ambiguity: - "8 Mbps" = 8 megabits per second = 1 MB/s by the network-layer definition - "1 MB file" = 1,000,000 bytes (decimal) or 1,048,576 bytes (binary)?
The site lets you convert with both prefixes correctly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which should I use?
Use bytes for storage, RAM, file sizes.
When is the alternative better?
Use bits for network speeds, bit-rate, and crypto hash sizes.
How is the conversion calculated?
Every conversion is a single factor (or an affine formula). The math is identical either direction; the difference is context.