Gigabits per second to gigabytes per second converter
Convertersconversion pair
Convert Gbps to GB/s instantly: 1 Gbps is 0.125 GB/s. Network speed versus storage speed, in one line.
a gigabit network and a gigabyte disk do not speak the same language.
work surface
Math, not advice — results are indicative.Read the disclaimer.
pro tips
Divide by 8 to move from Gbps to GB/s. The prefix stays giga; only the unit changes.
10 Gbps is 1.25 GB/s, not 10 GB/s. The missing factor of eight is the usual culprit.
When planning a backup, compare the link's GB/s with the disk's sustained write speed, not its peak read speed.
what it does
One gigabit per second is 0.125 gigabytes per second. Multiply by 0.125, or divide by eight, and the network rate becomes a storage rate.
This is the bridge between the two halves of a transfer: the link is measured in bits, the file in bytes. A 10 Gbps network moves 1.25 GB/s, so a disk that writes at 1 GB/s is already close to the limit.
Anchors: 1 Gbps is 0.125 GB/s, 2.5 Gbps is 0.3125 GB/s, and 10 Gbps is 1.25 GB/s. Those numbers explain why upgrading the network does not always speed up a copy if the storage is slower.
Enter a gigabit value and the widget answers in gigabytes per second immediately. Copy it, or swap to the inverse page when a storage benchmark is the starting point.
quick answers
Is 1 Gbps enough for a 1 GB/s disk?
No. 1 Gbps is 0.125 GB/s, well below 1 GB/s. The network becomes the bottleneck before the disk does.
How many GB/s is 40 Gbps?
5 GB/s. Divide by eight. That is why 40G and 100G links are described alongside fast storage arrays.
Why do network and storage use different units?
Historical habit: networks were measured in bits per second, storage in bytes. The conversion is constant, but the vocabulary never merged.