Convert throughput in MB/s or Mbps to IOPS, or IOPS to throughput, using the average I/O size (4 KiB by default), with decimal or binary units.

4 KiB is the standard random-I/O size; sequential workloads often use 64 KiB–1 MiB.

Queue and latency comparison
Enter with mean latency to compare against Little’s law. Use measured average concurrency (queue depth).

Default 80%. A planning choice, not measured device utilization.

Throughput to IOPS Formula

The following equation is used to calculate the IOPS.

IOPS = throughput (bytes / s) / average I / O size (bytes)
  • Where IOPS is the input output operations per second
  • T is the throughput; convert it to bytes per second before using the general formula.
  • Average I/O size is the data transferred per operation, converted to bytes. Decimal KB means 1,000 bytes; binary KiB means 1,024 bytes.

Divide throughput in bytes per second by average bytes per I/O. With decimal MB/s and KB, multiply the MB/s value by 1,000 and divide by the KB value. With binary MiB/s and KiB, use 1,024 instead.

Throughput (MiB/s) to IOPS Conversion Table (I/O size = 4 KiB)
Throughput (MiB/s) IOPS Data per Operation (KiB)
12564
512804
1025604
2051204
2564004
50128004
75192004
100256004
150384004
200512004
250640004
300768004
4001024004
5001280004
6001536004
8002048004
10002560004
15003840004
20005120004
30007680004
*Formula: IOPS = Throughput(MiB/s) × 1024 / I/O size (KiB). Assumes 1 MiB = 1024 KiB and a 4 KiB block size.

What Is IOPS?

Definition:

IOPS means input-output operations per second: a count of operations per second, rather than a byte-transfer rate. Throughput is the data transferred per second.

How to Calculate IOPS from Throughput?

Example Problem:

The following example outlines the steps and information needed to calculate IOPS.

First, determine the total throughput. For this example problem, the total throughput is measured to be 100 MB/s.

Next, determine the average I/O size. In this decimal-unit example, it is 50 KB per operation (50,000 bytes).

Finally, calculate the IOPS using the formula above:

IOPS = throughput (bytes/s) / average I/O size (bytes)

IOPS = (100 × 1,000,000) / (50 × 1,000)

IOPS = 2000 IOPS