diff --git a/src/libcamera/include/utils.h b/src/libcamera/include/utils.h
index 79038a96feab..1a6cf7f7b9dc 100644
--- a/src/libcamera/include/utils.h
+++ b/src/libcamera/include/utils.h
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 #include <memory>
 
 #define ARRAY_SIZE(a)	(sizeof(a) / sizeof(a[0]))
+#define BIT(b_)		(1 << (b_))
 
 namespace libcamera {
 
diff --git a/src/libcamera/utils.cpp b/src/libcamera/utils.cpp
index cd0fd7614cc7..1a5a2a03b1ca 100644
--- a/src/libcamera/utils.cpp
+++ b/src/libcamera/utils.cpp
@@ -24,6 +24,11 @@ namespace utils {
  * \brief Determine the number of elements in the static array.
  */
 
+/**
+ * \def BIT(b)
+ * \brief Bitwise left shift by \a b bits
+ */
+
 /**
  * \brief Strip the directory prefix from the path
  * \param[in] path The path to process