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Select a measurement and convert between different units
Single conversion
To convert from Gigabit (Gb) to Bit (bit), use the following formula:
Let's convert 5 Gigabit (Gb) to Bit (bit).
Using the formula:
Therefore, 5 Gigabit (Gb) is equal to Bit (bit).
Here are some quick reference conversions from Gigabit (Gb) to Bit (bit):
| Gigabits | Bits |
|---|---|
| 0.000001 Gb | bit |
| 0.001 Gb | bit |
| 0.1 Gb | bit |
| 1 Gb | bit |
| 2 Gb | bit |
| 3 Gb | bit |
| 4 Gb | bit |
| 5 Gb | bit |
| 6 Gb | bit |
| 7 Gb | bit |
| 8 Gb | bit |
| 9 Gb | bit |
| 10 Gb | bit |
| 20 Gb | bit |
| 30 Gb | bit |
| 40 Gb | bit |
| 50 Gb | bit |
| 100 Gb | bit |
| 1000 Gb | bit |
| 10000 Gb | bit |
For all Digital converters, choose units using the From/To dropdowns above.
A Gigabit (Gb) is a unit of digital information equal to one billion bits (109 bits).
It's a key measurement used to describe the speed of data transfer, most commonly your internet connection speed.
It's easy to mix up a Gigabit (Gb) and a Gigabyte (GB), but they measure two very different things: speed vs. size.
The most important thing to remember is this simple conversion:
This is why a fast 1 Gbps internet connection doesn't download a 1 GB file in one second.
Since a Gigabyte is eight times larger than a Gigabit, it will take about eight seconds to complete the download.
What does a fast internet connection of 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) mean for your daily use?
It provides the bandwidth needed to power a fully connected home or business, allowing you to:
A gigabit connection is the gold standard for reliable, high-speed internet for modern work, entertainment, and communication.
The prefix "Giga-" comes from the Greek word for "giant," and it represents a massive amount of data.
A single Gigabit is made up of one billion individual bits (the most minor units of digital data, represented by a 1 or a 0).
To put that in perspective, one Gigabit of information is enough to store the text of roughly 1,000 novels.
When you hear about Gigabit speeds, you're talking about the power to move that entire library of information every single second.
A bit (short for binary digit) is the most basic unit of data in computing.
It is the smallest possible piece of information a computer can handle. Think of a bit as a tiny light switch that can only be in one of two states: on (represented by a 1) or off (represented by a 0).
Every action you perform on a computer—from typing a letter to watching a video—is made possible by billions of these switches working together.
This simple on/off system, known as the binary system, is the fundamental language of all modern digital devices.
The word "bit" is a portmanteau, a blend of the words "binary digit."
It was coined by the brilliant mathematician and engineer Claude Shannon in his groundbreaking 1948 paper, "A Mathematical Theory of Communication."
Shannon, often called the "father of information theory," created this simple term to describe the most fundamental unit of digital information.
While a single bit doesn't hold much information on its own, computers group them together to represent more complex data.
Data is most commonly measured in bytes.
A byte is a sequence of 8 bits. This grouping allows for 256 (28) different combinations of 0s and 1s, which is enough to represent all the characters on your keyboard, including letters, numbers, and symbols.
From the byte, we get larger units of data storage:
You've likely seen internet speeds advertised in megabits per second (Mbps). This measures how many millions of bits can be transferred per second.
However, file sizes are measured in megabytes (MB). To understand your actual download speed, you need to convert bits to bytes.
Since there are 8 bits in a byte, you simply divide the Mbps value by 8.
Example: A 100 Mbps internet connection can download 12.5 megabytes (MB) of data per second (100 Mbps / 8 = 12.5 MBps).