Data rate and data transfer rate can refer to several related and overlapping concepts in communications networks:

Achieved rate

Bit rate In telecommunications and computing, bit rate (bitrate or as a variable ''R'') is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. The bit rate is expressed in the unit bit per second (symbol: bit/s), often in conjunction ...

, the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time **

Data signaling rate In telecommunication, data signaling rate (DSR), also known as gross bit rate, is the aggregate rate at which data passes a point in the transmission path of a data transmission system. # The DSR is usually expressed in bits per second. # The dat ...

or gross bit rate, a bit rate that includes protocol overhead *

Symbol rate In a digitally modulated signal or a line code, symbol rate, modulation rate or baud rate is the number of symbol changes, waveform changes, or signaling events across the transmission medium per unit of time. The symbol rate is measured in ' ...

or baud rate, the number of symbol changes, waveform changes, or signaling events across the transmission medium per unit of time *

Data-rate units In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits ( bitrate), characters or symbols ( baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are mu ...

, measures of the bit rate or baud rate of a link *

Data transfer rate (disk drive) Higher performance in hard disk drives comes from devices which have better performance characteristics. These performance characteristics can be grouped into two categories: access time and data transfer time (or rate). Access time The ''access ...

, a data rate specific to disk drive operations *

Throughput Network throughput (or just throughput, when in context) refers to the rate of message delivery over a communication channel, such as Ethernet or packet radio, in a communication network. The data that these messages contain may be delivered ove ...

, the rate of successful message delivery, or level of bandwidth consumption

Capacity

Bandwidth (computing) In computing, bandwidth is the maximum rate of data transfer across a given path. Bandwidth may be characterized as network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth. This definition of ''bandwidth'' is in contrast to the field of signal p ...

, the maximum rate of data transfer across a given path * Channel capacity, an information-theoretic upper bound on the rate at which data can be reliably transmitted, given noise on a channel Temporal rates Broad-concept articles