How Long Does a 5GB Upload Take? Formula & Real-World Overhead
ISPs advertise speed in megabits per second (Mbps), while files are measured in gigabytes (GB). Here is the exact formula.
The bits-to-bytes formula with protocol overhead
One decimal gigabyte (1 GB) equals 8,000 megabits (Mb). Therefore, a 5 GB file is 40,000 megabits of raw payload.
In real-world HTTPS multipart uploads, TCP headers, TLS encryption framing, and part handshakes add roughly 6% to 8% overhead. At 50 Mbps upload speed, a 5 GB transfer takes approximately 14 minutes 16 seconds.
Reference benchmarks for a 5GB file upload
• 10 Mbps upload speed: ~71 minutes 20 seconds. • 20 Mbps upload speed: ~35 minutes 40 seconds. • 50 Mbps upload speed: ~14 minutes 16 seconds. • 100 Mbps fibre upload: ~7 minutes 8 seconds. • 500 Mbps symmetrical fibre: ~1 minute 26 seconds.
You can plug in your exact file size and connection speed using our interactive Upload Time Calculator at /tools/upload-time-calculator.
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