Frequency Converter
Convert frequency units quickly, from hertz to kHz, MHz, GHz, beats per minute, revolutions per minute, and cycles per second. Great for audio.
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What this converter does
Frequency counts how often something repeats each second, whether that is a radio wave, a heartbeat, or an engine's spin. This converter moves a rate between hertz and its multiples (kilo, mega, giga, tera) and the per-minute units, beats per minute and revolutions per minute.
How to use it
- Type your frequency into the value box.
- Set From to the unit you have, and To to the unit you want.
- Press Calculate.
The result reads back in plain words, like "120 bpm is equal to 2 Hz." Use Swap to flip the two units, and Reset to clear.
How it works
The hertz is the common reference. The big units are simple multiples (a kilohertz is 1,000 hertz, a megahertz a million), while the per-minute units divide by 60 to reach hertz, since a minute is 60 seconds. Your value is converted to hertz and then to the target unit.
Common frequency conversions
The ones that come up most:
| Conversion | Value |
|---|---|
| 1 kilohertz (kHz) | 1,000 Hz |
| 1 megahertz (MHz) | 1,000,000 Hz |
| 1 gigahertz (GHz) | 1,000,000,000 Hz |
| 60 BPM | 1 Hz |
| 60 RPM | 1 Hz |
| 1 Hz | 1 cycle per second |
Hertz, BPM, and RPM: one idea across fields
Frequency just counts how often something repeats per second, and that single idea shows up under different names in different fields.
The hertz (Hz) is the base: one hertz is one cycle per second, which is exactly what "cycles per second" means, so the two are identical. Scale it up and you get the units of the electronic world. Radio stations broadcast in megahertz, so an FM station at 100.3 is at 100.3 MHz. WiFi and processors run in gigahertz, where a 3 GHz chip ticks three billion times a second.
Beats per minute (BPM) is the musician's and the doctor's unit. A song at 120 BPM has two beats every second, which is 2 Hz, and a resting heart rate of 60 BPM is exactly 1 Hz. Revolutions per minute (RPM) is the same maths for spinning things, like a car engine idling at 800 RPM or a hard drive at 7,200 RPM. Because both are per-minute counts, dividing by 60 turns either one into hertz.
Questions people ask
How many hertz are in a kilohertz?
One thousand. A megahertz is a million hertz, and a gigahertz is a billion hertz.
Is a cycle per second the same as a hertz?
Yes, exactly. "Cycles per second" was the older name, and it was renamed hertz, so 1 cps equals 1 Hz.
How do I convert BPM to hertz?
Divide by 60. So 60 BPM is 1 Hz, and a 120 BPM track is 2 Hz.
What is the difference between BPM and RPM?
They use identical maths but describe different things. BPM counts beats, used for music and heart rate, while RPM counts rotations, used for engines and disks. Both divide by 60 to become hertz.
What frequencies do FM radio and WiFi use?
FM radio sits in megahertz, roughly 88 to 108 MHz. WiFi runs in gigahertz, on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.
References
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Office of Weights and Measures. The International System of Units (SI) and the hertz. https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/metric-si/si-units
Okan Atalay is a results driven senior operations manager and a graduate of Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University. With over 22 years of experience in textile manufacturing and integrated operations, he has led large scale business process improvements and strategic planning initiatives. Currently, he serves as a top mathematics expert for a global ed tech platform, where he applies his analytical expertise to solve complex mathematical problems. At Eon Tools, he reviews converter and maths tools.