What is the relationship between symbol rate and baud?

In digital communications, "baud" is strictly defined as the number of symbols transmitted per second. Therefore, symbol rate and baud are simply two different terms for the exact same measurement. The confusion typically arises because people often use "baud" interchangeably with "bit rate" (bits per second) in casual conversation. While baud and symbol rate are always identical, bit rate only equals baud if the modulation scheme transmits exactly one bit per symbol.