Guide
How long does it take to upload 500 GB?
Uploading 500 GB takes about 22 h 13 min at 50 Mbps, 11 h 7 min at 100 Mbps and 2 h 13 min at 500 Mbps, if your connection holds its full upload speed the whole time. Real uploads run slower, so plan on a quarter longer, which turns 50 Mbps into 27 h 47 min.
500 GB at common upload speeds
500 GB is 4,000,000 megabits. Divide that by your upload speed and you get the full-speed column. The 80% column is the one to plan a day around. The upload time calculator does any other size or speed.
| Upload speed | At full speed | At 80% | MB per second |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Mbps | 4 days 15 h | 5 days 19 h | 1.25 MB/s |
| 20 Mbps | 2 days 8 h | 2 days 21 h | 2.5 MB/s |
| 50 Mbps | 22 h 13 min | 27 h 47 min | 6.25 MB/s |
| 100 Mbps | 11 h 7 min | 13 h 53 min | 12.5 MB/s |
| 200 Mbps | 5 h 33 min | 6 h 57 min | 25 MB/s |
| 500 Mbps | 2 h 13 min | 2 h 47 min | 62.5 MB/s |
| 1 Gbps | 1 h 7 min | 1 h 23 min | 125 MB/s |
Five times the 100 GB times, which sounds obvious until you notice what it means. At 50 Mbps, 100 GB is an afternoon. 500 GB is a full day and night.
What speed do I need to finish in time?
Turn it around and start from the deadline.
| Finish within | At full speed | At 80% |
|---|---|---|
| 8 hours, overnight | 139 Mbps | 174 Mbps |
| 24 hours | 46 Mbps | 58 Mbps |
| 48 hours, a weekend | 23 Mbps | 29 Mbps |
Find your real upload number with a speed test from the machine that will do the upload, over the same Wi-Fi or cable. Ignore the download figure on your bill. Plenty of plans sold as several hundred megabits upload at 20 to 50.
Why does a day-long upload run behind the math?
Over two hours, the network is what slows you down. Over twenty, it's everything else on the computer.
- The machine sleeps. Laptops on battery sleep, and a sleeping laptop uploads nothing.
- Updates restart it. Overnight is when operating systems like to install and reboot.
- Backups wake up. Cloud backup and photo sync apps run on a schedule and share your upload while they do.
- Wi-Fi drifts. A speed test next to the router at noon tells you little about 3 am from the bedroom.
- Breaks cost more. On a tool that starts over, losing the connection at hour 18 costs 18 hours, not a few minutes.
What did we measure?
Our release test uploads 100 GiB (about 107 GB) from a browser and breaks it on purpose eight times, with a crash, a closed tab, a reload, a 20-minute freeze and more. It finished in 56 minutes, freeze included, and the file matched byte for byte. Between failures it ran at about 620 Mbps.
That was a data-centre machine. At home your line is the limit, not the uploader. It does show that a break costs the parts in flight and nothing earlier. We haven't run 500 GB through the same test.
How do I get 500 GB up sooner?
- Use ethernet. It's the one change that reliably adds speed.
- Stop the machine sleeping and keep it on power. Resume saves the work, not the time.
- Pause backups and sync until the upload's done, and postpone system updates.
- Send one thing at a time. Two uploads each get half the line.
- Pick a tool that keeps what arrived. On Tranzfer, a Wi-Fi drop retries by itself, sleep carries on after waking, and after a crash you pick the same files and only the missing parts go up. On Pro, 500 GB fits in one delivery with 500 GB to spare.
- Send something first. If the other side needs to start before the whole lot lands, send the part they need first as its own delivery.
Does the download take as long?
Not usually. The recipient's download speed decides it, and home lines download faster than they upload. At 500 Mbps down, 500 GB takes 2 h 13 min. On desktop Chrome or Edge, Download all saves the whole delivery into one folder and carries on if it's interrupted. Other browsers go file by file.
When should you use something else?
- Your upload is under 20 Mbps. That's over two days of uploading. A drive sent by courier is faster.
- You want an installed client. We're browser only. MASV's desktop app recovers from reboots and Filemail's desktop app resumes too.
- You were going to use Dropbox in the browser. Dropbox's own page says browser uploads over 375 GB may time out and points you to its desktop app.
If 500 GB is half of what you have, how long it takes to upload 1 TB and how to transfer 1 TB of files cover the planning.
Questions people ask
Can I upload 500 GB overnight?
Only on a fast line. To move 500 GB in 8 hours you need about 139 Mbps of upload at full speed, or about 174 Mbps if you plan on 80%. Most cable and DSL uploads are well below that.
How long does 500 GB take on gigabit?
1 h 7 min at a full gigabit, and about 1 h 23 min at 80%. Gigabit fibre with a symmetric upload is the one home connection where 500 GB is a lunch break.
Which Tranzfer plan holds 500 GB?
Pro, at $29 a month, holds 1 TB live at once. Starter holds 300 GB, so on Starter you'd send 500 GB as two deliveries, one after the other.
How many GB is 500 GB in Windows?
About 466. Windows Explorer counts in GiB and labels it GB, so the same files look about 7% smaller there than a transfer service counts them.