Game Download Time Calculator

Game size, GB

Connection speed

Speed unit

Overhead loss, %

Result

Download time2 h 1 min
Real speed, MB/s11.25
Per gigabyte1.52 min per gigabyte
Size, MB81,920
Seconds7,282
What mattersProviders sell megabits and files are megabytes: 100 Mbps is at best 12.5 MB/s.

Megabits and megabytes differ by a factor of eight

Works out how long a download takes at your connection speed, with an allowance for overhead.

Providers sell megabits per second and file sizes are quoted in megabytes. That factor of eight is the main source of disappointment: a hundred megabits per second is at best 12.5 megabytes, roughly a gigabyte every minute and a half.

The real speed is lower still. Protocol overhead, on-the-fly decompression and server-side limits take five to fifteen percent, so a calculation from the advertised speed is always optimistic.

What this calculator shows

The download time in hours and minutes
The real speed in megabytes after overhead
How many minutes each gigabyte takes

What to keep in mind

Ten percent of loss is assumed by default: that is the usual gap between advertised and observed speed.
Decompression time is not counted, and for large games it can rival the download itself.

FAQs

How long does 100 GB take at 100 Mbps?

About three hours in ideal conditions, closer to three and a half once overhead is counted.

Why is my download slower than my plan?

The plan is in megabits and the download shows megabytes — divide by eight. Add protocol overhead and limits on the game server's side.

Wired or Wi-Fi?

Wired, nearly always: it delivers the advertised speed consistently, while Wi-Fi loses it to distance, interference and the number of devices on the network.

Can a store download be sped up?

Changing the download region and cutting background traffic sometimes helps. Nothing exceeds the speed of the line itself.

Worked example

A big game on a hundred-megabit line

Input: 80 GB at 100 Mbps, 10% overhead

Output: 2 hours 1 minute at a real 11.25 MB/s

Note: Without the division by eight the same 80 gigabytes would 'take' fifteen minutes. Which is why 'fast internet' and 'downloads fast' line up worse than people expect.

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Game Download Time Calculator

Result

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