Bit (bit)

Definition

A single binary digit; eight bits make one byte.

History

The bit, short for binary digit, was named by the statistician John Tukey and popularised by Claude Shannon in his 1948 work founding information theory. It represents a single 0 or 1.

Where it is used

Bits are used to measure information and, most visibly, network and connection speeds, which are quoted in bits per second.

Typical uses include network and connection speeds, encoding.

Conversion pages

These pages convert bit to or from another unit in digital storage.

No conversion pages use this unit yet.

Other Digital storage units

• Byte (B)
• Kilobyte (kB)
• Megabyte (MB)
• Gigabyte (GB)
• Terabyte (TB)
• Gibibyte (GiB)
• Mebibyte (MiB)
• Tebibyte (TiB)

Sources

• IEC 80000-13 IEC 80000-13 (quantities and units — information science); NIST on binary prefixes · Dataset reviewed Nov 11, 2026