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Transferring 100 GB over WiFi 6 takes 11m 7s

A 100 GB transfer over WiFi 6 works out to about 11 minutes 7 seconds at a realistic 1.2 Gbps sustained rate on a clean 5 GHz 160 MHz channel. 802.11ax's marketing peak is 9.6 Gbps across four antennas, but 1–1.5 Gbps sustained is the mainstream per-device reality for a modern laptop at close range.

Transfer time
11m 6s
At peak link speed
File size
100 GB
100 GB
Link speed
1,200 Mbps
WiFi 6 (real-world 1.2 Gbps)

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Configuration

Mbps
Estimated Transfer Time
11m 6s

Speed Comparison

USB 2.0
27m 46s
480 Mbps
USB 4 / Thunderbolt 4
20s
40 Gbps
Gigabit Ethernet
13m 20s
1 Gbps
10 Gigabit Ethernet
1m 20s
10 Gbps
WiFi 5 (ac)
33m 20s
400 Mbps
WiFi 7 (be)
2m 40s
5 Gbps
SATA SSD
3m 1s
4.4 Gbps
NVMe Gen4 SSD
14s
56 Gbps

How this is calculated

WiFi 6 mostly matters for multi-device consistency rather than single-link peak — OFDMA and MU-MIMO keep speeds stable when the network is busy, which is where WiFi 5 falls apart. For a single device doing a bulk transfer, the practical improvement over 5 GHz 80 MHz WiFi 5 is 2–3×, not the 7× the marketing implies. WiFi 6E on the 6 GHz band typically does better than 5 GHz because the spectrum is cleaner.

Verdict

11m 7s for 100 GB over WiFi 6 at good signal is a useful benchmark. Most laptops and phones land in the 10–15 minute range depending on distance and congestion.

More Wireless scenarios

50 GB over WiFi 5
WiFi 5 (real-world 400 Mbps)
View details ➜
200 GB over WiFi 7
WiFi 7 (real-world 5 Gbps)
View details ➜

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to transfer 1 TB over Gigabit Ethernet?
At a theoretical 1000 Mbps (125 MB/s), 1 TB takes about 2 hours and 13 minutes in ideal conditions. Real-world speeds over Gigabit Ethernet typically top out around 110-115 MB/s due to TCP overhead, so budget closer to 2.5 hours for a full 1 TB copy.
Why is my real transfer speed slower than the cable's rated speed?
Rated speeds are raw signalling rates in bits per second. Protocol overhead (TCP/IP, USB framing, filesystem operations), encryption, small-file latency, and the slowest device in the chain (often the disk, not the cable) all reduce usable throughput. A USB 3.0 port rated 5 Gbps usually delivers around 400 MB/s in practice, not the theoretical 625 MB/s.
What's the difference between megabits (Mbps) and megabytes (MB/s)?
There are 8 bits in a byte, so 1000 Mbps equals 125 MB/s. Network speeds and ISP plans are advertised in megabits per second, while file sizes and storage speeds are measured in megabytes per second. Dividing Mbps by 8 gives you the MB/s figure you actually see when copying files.
How fast is WiFi 6 compared to Gigabit Ethernet for file transfers?
WiFi 6 can exceed Gigabit Ethernet on paper (up to ~9.6 Gbps theoretical) but real-world throughput usually lands between 500 Mbps and 1.5 Gbps depending on distance, interference, and client hardware. For a single large file transfer, wired Gigabit is still more consistent; WiFi 6E or WiFi 7 can edge ahead in ideal conditions.
Is USB 4 or Thunderbolt 4 faster for copying files?
Both use the same 40 Gbps underlying spec and deliver comparable real-world speeds of around 2800-3200 MB/s for sustained transfers. Thunderbolt 4 guarantees the full 40 Gbps and PCIe 32 Gbps tunnel; USB 4 allows 20 Gbps implementations, so check the port's actual spec rather than assuming parity.
Does file size affect transfer speed?
Yes — significantly. Transferring one 50 GB file hits near-maximum throughput, but copying 50 GB of small files (thousands of photos, say) can be 5-10x slower because every file has filesystem and metadata overhead. For large migrations, compressing into an archive first is often faster end to end.

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