Uploads and backup
How long does it take to upload 500 GB at 5 Mbps?
9 days 18 h
to upload 500 GB at 5 Mbps, best case. Typical: 11 days 14 h (at 80 % efficiency, our estimate for Wi-Fi and busy servers).
5 Mbps upload is still common on DSL and older cable plans. At that speed a 500 GB photo library is a job of more than a week, and it uses your upload the whole time.
Uploading only overnight, 8 hours a night, it takes about 29 nights.
The arithmetic
- 500 GB × 8 bits per byte = 4,000 gigabits (4,000,000,000,000 bits)
- 5 Mbps = 5,000,000 bits per second = 0.62 MB/s at most
- 4,000,000,000,000 ÷ 5,000,000 = 800,000 s = 9 days 6 h with zero overhead
- TCP/IP and Ethernet framing use about 5 % of the line (1,460 data bytes per 1,538 on the wire): 800,000 ÷ 0.949 = 9 days 18 h
If the size is really 500 GiB (some stores and Windows label GiB as GB), it is 7.4 % bigger: 10 days 11 h best case.
| Speed | Best case (95 %) | Typical (80 %, estimate) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Mbps | 4 days 21 h | 5 days 19 h |
| 25 Mbps | 46 h 49 min | 2 days 8 h |
| 50 Mbps | 23 h 25 min | 27 h 47 min |
| 100 Mbps | 11 h 42 min | 13 h 53 min |
| 300 Mbps | 3 h 54 min | 4 h 38 min |
| 500 Mbps | 2 h 20 min | 2 h 47 min |
| 1,000 Mbps | 1 h 10 min | 1 h 23 min |
Sources and assumptions
- Overhead: 94.9 % efficiency from TCP/IPv4 on 1,500-byte Ethernet frames (computed); 80 % 'typical' is our estimate.