Megabits to Kilobits Converter

Megabits to Kilobits

Convert megabits (Mb) to kilobits (Kb). Both measure digital storage, and the conversion comes up in computing, storage, internet work.

The Formula

`` kilobits = megabits × 1000 megabits = kilobits × 0.001 `

One megabit is 1,000 kilobits, and one kilobit is 0.001 megabits.

Conversion Table

Megabits	Kilobits
1 Mb	1,000 Kb
2 Mb	2,000 Kb
5 Mb	5,000 Kb
10 Mb	10,000 Kb
25 Mb	25,000 Kb
50 Mb	50,000 Kb
100 Mb	100,000 Kb
500 Mb	500,000 Kb
1,000 Mb	1,000,000 Kb

The Other Direction

Kilobits	Megabits
1 Kb	0.001 Mb
2 Kb	0.002 Mb
5 Kb	0.005 Mb
10 Kb	0.01 Mb
25 Kb	0.025 Mb
50 Kb	0.05 Mb
100 Kb	0.1 Mb
500 Kb	0.5 Mb
1,000 Kb	1 Mb

What Each Unit Is

Megabits (Mb) — 1,000,000 bits. The unit internet plans are sold in — deliberately, because it makes the number eight times larger.

Kilobits (Kb) — 1,000 bits in decimal (SI) usage. The telecoms convention, where powers of ten have always been used.

A Sense of Scale

• HD streaming needs 5 Mbit/s
• 100 Mbit/s downloads at about 12.5 MB/s
• Dial-up peaked at 56 kbit/s
• Audio bitrates are in kbit/s

Precision

The factor 1000 is rounded. For engineering work carry more digits than the table above, and round only at the end — rounding at each step compounds.

Watch Out For

• Mb is megabits, MB is megabytes. A 100 Mbps connection delivers roughly 12.5 MB/s, not 100.

In Code

`javascript const megabitToKilobit = (value) => value * 1000; ``

Where This Conversion Comes Up

• Computing
• Storage
• Internet
• Media
• Backups

How Many Decimals Do You Need?

Rounding the factor costs accuracy, and how much depends on the factor. Converting 137 Mb with the factor truncated at each decimal place:

Decimals kept	Factor	137 Mb becomes	Error
0	1000	137,000	—
1	1000	137,000	—
2	1000	137,000	—
3	1000	137,000	—
4	1000	137,000	—

A rule that holds for any conversion: round once, at the end. Rounding the factor and then multiplying compounds the error through every subsequent calculation, while carrying full precision and rounding the final answer does not.

The right number of significant figures is set by your input, not by the converter. If you measured megabits to three significant figures, the answer in kilobits is only good to three — writing more digits claims precision the measurement never had.

Other Conversions From Megabits

The same value in every other unit this converter supports for data:

From	To	Unit
1 Mb	1,000,000 b	Bits
1 Mb	125,000 B	Bytes
1 Mb	125 KB	Kilobytes
1 Mb	0.125 MB	Megabytes
1 Mb	1.2500e-4 GB	Gigabytes
1 Mb	1.2500e-7 TB	Terabytes

Chaining conversions works — megabits to metres to feet gives the same answer as megabits to feet — but each step rounds, so a chain of three conversions carries three roundings. Convert directly where a direct factor exists.