diff --git a/frontend/src/utils/__tests__/formatBytes.spec.ts b/frontend/src/utils/__tests__/formatBytes.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0d22eede5e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/src/utils/__tests__/formatBytes.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
+import { formatBytes } from '../format'
+import { formatByteRate } from '@/views/admin/ops/utils/opsFormatters'
+
+describe('fractional byte rates', () => {
+  it.each([[0.5, '0.5 Bytes'], [0.01, '0.01 Bytes'], [0, '0 Bytes'], [1024, '1 KB']])('formats %s bytes', (value, expected) => {
+    expect(formatBytes(value as number)).toBe(expected)
+  })
+
+  it('keeps the byte unit when an observation averages less than one byte per second', () => {
+    expect(formatByteRate(30, 1)).toBe('0.5 Bytes/s')
+  })
+})
diff --git a/frontend/src/utils/format.ts b/frontend/src/utils/format.ts
index 87204ff158..980f014c7d 100644
--- a/frontend/src/utils/format.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/utils/format.ts
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ export function formatBytes(bytes: number, decimals: number = 2): string {
   const dm = decimals < 0 ? 0 : decimals
   const sizes = ['Bytes', 'KB', 'MB', 'GB', 'TB', 'PB', 'EB', 'ZB', 'YB']
 
-  const i = Math.floor(Math.log(bytes) / Math.log(k))
+  const i = Math.max(0, Math.floor(Math.log(bytes) / Math.log(k)))
 
   return parseFloat((bytes / Math.pow(k, i)).toFixed(dm)) + ' ' + sizes[i]
 }