Digital & everyday

Upload time calculator

Estimate file-transfer time from file size, connection speed, and usable throughput.

Your measurements

Change any value to calculate
GB
Mbps
%
Estimated transfer time
16.67 min
Whole minutes
16 min
Remaining seconds
40 s
Total time
1,000 s
Effective speed
16 Mbps

Displayed values are rounded. Whole packages and purchase lengths round up. See assumptions below.

Calculation details

Inputs and full-precision results for checking this calculation. No report is sent.

How to use this calculator

Enter decimal gigabytes and the connection speed in megabits per second. Use upload speed for an upload and download speed for a download. The throughput percentage allows for overhead and conditions that reduce useful speed.

The formula

Seconds = file size in GB × 1,000,000,000 × 8 ÷ (speed in Mbps × 1,000,000 × throughput% ÷ 100).

A worked example

Transferring 2 GB at 20 Mbps and 80% usable throughput takes 1,000 seconds, or 16 minutes 40 seconds.

Assumptions & limitations

Assumes a constant effective transfer rate. One GB is 1,000,000,000 bytes here; GiB is a different unit. Server limits, connection changes, retries, and compression can affect real time.

Common questions

Are Mbps and MB/s the same?

No. There are 8 bits in a byte. At 100% throughput, 20 Mbps is 2.5 decimal MB/s.

Can I estimate download time too?

Yes. Use the download speed instead of upload speed.

Units reference

The calculation follows the method above. This reference supports the units and conversions.

NIST: binary prefixes and decimal units ↗

Formula and worked example checked against automated test cases. About our methodology.

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The math, explained

Clear formulas and useful worked examples.

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