Frequency Converter

Convert between hertz, kilohertz, megahertz, gigahertz, RPM, and beats per minute — for audio, radio, electronics, and engines.

Frequency

Hz, kHz, rpm, bpm

From

Result

0.001

1 Hz = 0.001 kHz

Popular conversions

What Is a Frequency Converter?

A frequency converter translates a rate of repetition between units — hertz to kilohertz, megahertz to gigahertz, hertz to RPM. Frequency is how many cycles happen per second, and the SI unit is the hertz (Hz): one cycle per second. From the 50/60 Hz mains supply to gigahertz processors and thousands of RPM in engines, frequency spans a vast range that prefixes and alternative units tame.

This converter routes through the hertz. It bridges the cycle-based units (Hz, kHz, MHz, GHz) with the per-minute units engineers actually use — revolutions per minute (RPM) for rotating machinery and beats per minute (BPM) for music and heart rate — by dividing or multiplying by 60.

This is one category of the full Unit Converter — pair it with our percentage calculator or scientific calculator for related everyday maths.

How Frequency Conversion Works

Everything routes through the hertz

Each unit has a fixed hertz factor. The converter turns your input into hertz, then projects it into every other frequency unit.

Metric prefixes scale by 1,000

1 kHz = 1,000 Hz, 1 MHz = 1,000 kHz, 1 GHz = 1,000 MHz. Radio and electronics climb these prefixes by powers of a thousand.

Per-minute units divide by 60

RPM and BPM are cycles per minute, so 1 Hz = 60 RPM = 60 BPM. A 3,000 RPM motor spins at 50 Hz.

Frequency and period are reciprocals

Period (seconds per cycle) is 1/frequency. A 50 Hz signal has a 20 ms period; converting between them is just taking the reciprocal.

Core Frequency Conversion Factors

Multiply to reach hertz; divide to come back. Per-minute units use a factor of 60.

kHz → Hz

× 1000

One kilohertz is 1,000 hertz. Each metric step (kHz, MHz, GHz) multiplies by 1,000.

RPM → Hz

÷ 60

Revolutions per minute divided by 60 gives hertz: 3,000 RPM = 50 Hz.

Period → Frequency

f = 1 / T

Frequency is the reciprocal of period. A 20 ms period is 50 Hz.

How to Use the Frequency Converter

1
Enter the frequency value
Type the frequency you want to convert — a signal rate, a motor speed, a tempo.
2
Choose the 'from' unit
Pick hertz, kHz, MHz, GHz, RPM, or BPM as your starting unit.
3
Choose the 'to' unit
Select the target unit, or swap the two to reverse direction.
4
Read every unit at once
The all-units table shows the frequency across Hz, kHz, MHz, GHz, and RPM together.

Key Frequency Concepts

Hertz

The SI unit of frequency: one cycle per second. Mains power is 50 or 60 Hz; human hearing spans roughly 20 Hz to 20 kHz.

Metric prefixes

Kilo (10³), mega (10⁶), and giga (10⁹) scale frequency for radio (MHz), Wi-Fi and CPUs (GHz), and beyond.

RPM

Revolutions per minute, the standard for engines, turbines, and disks. Divide by 60 to get hertz: 6,000 RPM = 100 Hz.

Period

The time for one cycle, the reciprocal of frequency. Oscilloscopes and timing circuits often work in period (seconds) rather than hertz.

Real-World Frequency Conversions

🔌

Mains power

Mains runs at 50 Hz (most of the world) or 60 Hz (Americas), equal to 3,000 or 3,600 RPM for a 2-pole generator.

📻

Radio stations

An FM station at 98.5 MHz is 98,500,000 Hz. Radio dials are in MHz; the underlying unit is hertz.

💻

CPU clock speed

A 3.2 GHz processor cycles 3.2 billion times per second. Chip speeds are quoted in gigahertz.

🎵

Music tempo

A 120 BPM track is 2 Hz; concert pitch A is 440 Hz. Audio mixes BPM (tempo) and Hz (pitch).

⚙️

Engine RPM

A 6,000 RPM engine turns at 100 Hz. Tachometers read RPM; vibration analysis works in hertz.

❤️

Heart rate

A 72 BPM pulse is 1.2 Hz. Medicine uses BPM; signal processing of an ECG uses hertz.

Best Practices for Frequency Conversion

✓Divide RPM by 60 for hertz. RPM and BPM are per-minute; hertz is per-second. Converting between them is a factor of 60, easy to forget when comparing motor speed to a vibration frequency.
✓Carry metric prefixes carefully. kHz, MHz, and GHz each scale by 1,000. Dropping a prefix shifts a radio or CPU frequency by orders of magnitude.
✓Use the reciprocal for period. To convert frequency to period (or back), take 1/value. A 50 Hz signal is a 20 ms period — not 50 ms.
✓Keep hertz for signal math. Filters, sampling, and Fourier analysis use hertz. Convert RPM or BPM to hertz before applying signal-processing formulas.
✓Mind angular vs ordinary frequency. Angular frequency (rad/s) is 2π times the hertz value. Physics formulas using ω need the 2π factor on top of the unit conversion.

Common Frequency Conversion Mistakes

Forgetting the factor of 60

Treating RPM as hertz (or vice versa) without dividing by 60 misstates a rotational or rhythmic frequency 60-fold.

Dropping metric prefixes

Reading MHz as kHz, or GHz as MHz, shifts the frequency by 1,000×. Always carry the prefix in radio and electronics figures.

Confusing frequency and period

Period is the reciprocal of frequency, not a linear scaling. A higher frequency means a shorter period, not a longer one.

Ignoring the 2π for angular frequency

Angular frequency ω = 2πf. Using the plain hertz value where radians per second is required omits the 2π factor.

Why Frequency Conversion Matters

Frequency underlies power systems, radio, audio, computing, and rotating machinery — and each field labels it differently, from hertz and its metric prefixes to RPM and BPM. A dropped prefix can misplace a radio station by a factor of a thousand, and the per-minute-versus-per-second gap of 60 routinely confuses comparisons between engine speed and vibration analysis.

Because frequency connects directly to period, wavelength, and rotational speed, getting the unit right is essential for tuning, timing, and diagnostics. A converter that routes through the hertz and bridges to RPM and BPM lets an engineer, musician, or technician read a single rate in whatever unit the instrument or score uses.

Built for electronics and RF engineers, musicians, mechanics, and technicians converting between hertz, kHz/MHz/GHz, and RPM.

Linear unit factors follow the BIPM SI brochure, the NIST Guide to the SI, and ISO 80000. Currency rates load live from open.er-api.com; crypto prices from CoinGecko. See our methodology and editorial policy. Educational only — not certified for regulated trading, settlement, medical, or aerospace use.

Frequency Converter FAQs

Divide revolutions per minute by 60, because hertz is cycles per second and RPM is cycles per minute. So 3,000 RPM is 50 Hz, and 6,000 RPM is 100 Hz. To go the other way, multiply hertz by 60 to get RPM.

One megahertz is 1,000,000 hertz, and one gigahertz is 1,000 MHz (a billion hertz). The metric prefixes climb by factors of 1,000: 1 kHz = 1,000 Hz, 1 MHz = 1,000 kHz, 1 GHz = 1,000 MHz.

They're reciprocals: frequency (Hz) = 1 ÷ period (seconds). A 50 Hz signal has a period of 1/50 = 0.02 seconds (20 ms). A higher frequency means a shorter period, so doubling the frequency halves the period.

Divide beats per minute by 60 to get hertz. So a 120 BPM song is 2 Hz, and a 72 BPM heart rate is 1.2 Hz. BPM and RPM both use the same factor of 60 because they count events per minute rather than per second.

Angular frequency (ω) is the rate of rotation in radians per second, equal to 2π times the ordinary frequency in hertz: ω = 2πf. A 50 Hz signal has an angular frequency of about 314 rad/s. Physics formulas involving oscillation often need ω rather than f.

It uses exact definitions (1 kHz = 1,000 Hz, 1 MHz = 10⁶ Hz, 1 GHz = 10⁹ Hz, 1 RPM = 1/60 Hz) and routes every conversion through the hertz at full precision, so the result is exact to your input precision.