Data Unit Converter: Storage and Speed
Convert data sizes (decimal GB ⇄ binary GiB) and connection speeds (Mbps ⇄ MB/s), the two places people most often get confused when choosing VPS disk and bandwidth.
Decimal vs. binary units of storage
The converter translates data sizes between two families of units. Decimal units (KB, MB, GB, TB) are powers of ten: 1 KB = 1,000 bytes, 1 MB = 1,000 KB and so on. Binary units (KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB) are powers of two: 1 KiB = 1,024 bytes, 1 MiB = 1,024 KiB. The difference is tiny for small values but it compounds: the larger the amount, the bigger the gap between GB and GiB.
That is why a "1 TB" drive shows up as roughly 931 GiB in your operating system. The manufacturer counts capacity in decimal terabytes (10 to the 12th bytes), while the OS reports binary gibibytes (2 to the 30th bytes). The drive is not short-changing you: these are two ways of writing the same number of bytes. Hosting providers are not always consistent either, so check whether a "100 GB" plan means GB or GiB when the margin matters.
Speed: bits vs. bytes
Providers quote port speed and bandwidth in bits per second (Kbps, Mbps, Gbps), while download managers and file transfer tools show bytes per second (KB/s, MB/s). There are eight bits in a byte, so divide Mbps by 8 to get MB/s. A 100 Mbps port gives you at most about 12.5 MB/s of real file transfer speed.
| Port speed | Max in MB/s |
| 100 Mbps | ≈ 12.5 MB/s |
| 1 Gbps | ≈ 125 MB/s |
| 10 Gbps | ≈ 1,250 MB/s |
Why this matters when you run a server
Accurate conversions help with real decisions: how long a backup will take to upload over a given port, whether your monthly transfer fits the plan's bandwidth allowance, and whether there is enough disk space for your database and logs. Keep two rules in mind: divide bits by 8 to get bytes, and do not mix up GB and GiB when planning storage.