Frequency Converter
Convert between hertz, kilohertz, megahertz, gigahertz and revolutions per minute.
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, logged or stored.
1 MHz
1,000,000 Hz
Hertz
In every unit
| Unit | Symbol | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Hertz | Hz | 1,000,000 |
| Kilohertz | kHz | 1,000 |
| Megahertz | MHz | 1 |
| Gigahertz | GHz | 0.001 |
| Revolution per minute | rpm | 60,000,000 |
How often something repeats. Processor clocks are in gigahertz, radio is in megahertz, audio is in hertz and kilohertz, and anything that spins is in revolutions per minute.
How it works
Every unit is expressed in hertz and conversions go through it. One hertz is one cycle per second, and the prefixes are the ordinary decimal ones: a kilohertz is a thousand hertz, a megahertz a million, a gigahertz a thousand million.
Revolutions per minute is the same quantity counted per minute rather than per second, so one rpm is one sixtieth of a hertz and 60 rpm is exactly 1 Hz.
Examples
| Case | Input | Result |
|---|---|---|
| A clock speed | 1 GHz | 1,000 MHz |
| An engine at three thousand revolutions | 3,000 rpm | 50 Hz |
| Mains frequency as a rotation speed | 50 Hz | 3,000 rpm |
Frequently asked questions
Are these prefixes binary, like in file sizes?
No. A kilohertz is exactly a thousand hertz, not 1024. The binary prefixes exist because computer memory is addressed in powers of two; frequency has no such reason and uses the ordinary decimal prefixes throughout.
Does a higher clock speed mean a faster processor?
Not on its own. Gigahertz counts cycles per second, not work done per cycle, so two chips at the same clock speed can differ widely in what they finish. The conversion here is arithmetic; the comparison is not.
How does this relate to musical pitch?
Pitch is frequency: concert A is commonly tuned to 440 Hz. Musical intervals are ratios rather than differences, though, so an octave up is a doubling. This page converts units; it does not do interval arithmetic.
Good to know
- Every factor used here is an exact definition rather than a rounded measurement, so the only error in a result is the one that comes from displaying it with a finite number of digits.