Bytes to bits
1 byte = 8 bits
Type a value in bytes (B) to get bits (bit) straight away. A byte is larger than a bit, so the number goes up. Both units belong to data storage, measured here against the byte.
1 B = 8 bit
Formula
bit = B × 8
One byte is 8 bits, so multiply the byte value by that factor. Here B is the value in bytes and bit is the result in bits.
Worked example: 1,024 bytes × 8 = 8,192 bits.
Bytes to bits table
| bytes (B) | bits (bit) |
|---|---|
| 1 B | 8 bit |
| 2 B | 16 bit |
| 3 B | 24 bit |
| 4 B | 32 bit |
| 5 B | 40 bit |
| 6 B | 48 bit |
| 7 B | 56 bit |
| 8 B | 64 bit |
| 9 B | 72 bit |
| 10 B | 80 bit |
| 15 B | 120 bit |
| 20 B | 160 bit |
| 25 B | 200 bit |
| 30 B | 240 bit |
| 40 B | 320 bit |
| 50 B | 400 bit |
| 60 B | 480 bit |
| 75 B | 600 bit |
| 100 B | 800 bit |
Everyday bytes in bits
| What it is | B | bit |
|---|---|---|
| one ASCII character | 1 B | 8 bit |
| a classic disk sector | 512 B | 4,096 bit |
| one KiB | 1,024 B | 8,192 bit |
| a common file-system block | 4,096 B | 32,768 bit |
| 64 KiB | 65,536 B | 524,288 bit |
Quick estimate in your head
Multiply by about 8. For 1,024 B that gives 8,192 bit against an exact 8,192 bit, an error under 0.1%.
Watch out for
- Internet speeds are in megabits per second (Mbps). Divide by 8 to get megabytes per second: a 100 Mbps line downloads about 12.5 MB/s.
About the units
Byte (B). 8 bits. The basic unit for file and memory sizes.
Bit (bit). A single binary digit. Network speeds are quoted in bits per second, so Mbps is megabits.
Going the other way, 1 bit is 0.125 bytes.
Questions
How many bits are in 1 byte?
1 byte is 8 bits, and 1 bit is 0.125 bytes.
How do I convert bytes to bits?
Use bit = B × 8. For example, 1,024 bytes × 8 = 8,192 bits.
Why does my drive show less space than advertised?
Makers use decimal units (1 GB = 10⁹ bytes) while many operating systems count in binary (1 GiB = 2³⁰ bytes). A 1 TB drive therefore shows about 931 GiB.
How much is 64 KiB in bits?
65,536 B is 524,288 bit.
Source for the conversion factor: NIST: prefixes for binary multiples (IEC 80000-13).
Related conversions
- bits to bytes
- megabytes to gigabytes
- gigabytes to megabytes
- gigabytes to terabytes
- terabytes to gigabytes
- kilobytes to megabytes