UnitSnapData Storage converter
Digital information is measured in bits, the smallest unit, representing a single binary value of 0 or 1. Eight bits make one byte, the basic unit for file sizes and memory. Network speeds are usually stated in bits per second, while storage and file sizes are stated in bytes.
Convert between 8 data storage units. Pick any two units below; results update as you type.
Popular data storage conversions
About data storage units
Two prefix systems are in use. Decimal (SI) prefixes count in powers of 1,000, so 1 kB is 1,000 bytes. Binary (IEC) prefixes count in powers of 1,024, so 1 KiB is 1,024 bytes, 1 MiB is 1,048,576 bytes, and so on through GiB, TiB, and PiB. Storage makers label drives with decimal units, while some operating systems report binary values using decimal-looking labels.
The International Electrotechnical Commission introduced the kibi, mebi, and gibi prefixes in 1998 to end this ambiguity, but labels such as "KB" and "GB" are still often used loosely for binary quantities.
Tips
- A drive sold as 1 TB holds 10¹² bytes, which an operating system using binary units may show as roughly 931 GB.
- Divide a speed in megabits per second by 8 to estimate megabytes per second.
- Lowercase b usually means bits and uppercase B means bytes; Mbps and MB/s differ by a factor of 8.
All data storage units
| Unit | Symbol | Value in bits |
|---|---|---|
| Bits | bit | 1 bit = 1 bit |
| Bytes | B | 1 B = 8 bit |
| Kilobytes | kB | 1 kB = 8,000 bit |
| Kibibytes | KiB | 1 KiB = 8,192 bit |
| Mebibytes | MiB | 1 MiB = 8,388,608 bit |
| Gibibytes | GiB | 1 GiB = 8,589,935,000 bit |
| Tebibytes | TiB | 1 TiB = 8,796,093,000,000 bit |
| Pebibytes | PiB | 1 PiB = 9.0072E15 bit |
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Factors: NIST SP 811 · SI Brochure · NIST Handbook 44 — Updated