Data Storage Converter
This data storage converter switches a digital size between the units you meet on drives, downloads and network speeds: bits, bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes and terabytes, plus the binary units mebibytes (MiB) and gibibytes (GiB). Enter a value, choose the unit you have and the unit you want, and the result appears instantly. The key thing to know is that decimal units (KB, MB, GB, TB) count in powers of 1000, while binary units (MiB, GiB) count in powers of 1024, which is why a "1 TB" drive shows as roughly 931 GiB in some operating systems.
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How it works
The trick is that each unit equals a fixed number of bytes, but two families do not get along. The decimal units (KB, MB, GB, TB) climb in steps of a thousand: a KB is 1,000 bytes, an MB a million, a GB a billion. The binary units (KiB, MiB, GiB), by contrast, climb in steps of 1,024, the power of 2 closest to a thousand. The converter takes your value, turns it into bytes with the source factor and divides by the target factor. Think of it in photos: if each phone photo weighs about 4 MB, a 64 GB card holds roughly 64,000 ÷ 4 = 16,000 photos (using the decimal definition, 1 GB = 1,000 MB). And here comes the classic confusion: that same 1 decimal GB (a billion bytes) is only 0.931 GiB, because the GiB counts in powers of 1,024. Neither is wrong; they simply count by a different rule.
How many bytes each unit holds (decimal vs binary)
Decimal units use powers of 1,000 and are the ones printed on the box of a drive or a flash stick. Binary units use powers of 1,024 and are usually the ones operating systems show when reporting free space. That is why a drive sold as 1 TB (a trillion bytes) appears as about 931 GiB in the file explorer: the bytes are the same, what changes is the unit they are counted in.
| Unit | Bytes |
|---|---|
| 1 bit | 0.125 |
| 1 byte (B) | 1 |
| 1 kilobyte (KB) | 1,000 |
| 1 kibibyte (KiB) | 1,024 |
| 1 megabyte (MB) | 1,000,000 |
| 1 mebibyte (MiB) | 1,048,576 |
| 1 gigabyte (GB) | 1,000,000,000 |
| 1 gibibyte (GiB) | 1,073,741,824 |
| 1 terabyte (TB) | 1,000,000,000,000 |
| 1 tebibyte (TiB) | 1,099,511,627,776 |
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Preguntas frecuentes
- How many MB are in a GB?
- Using the decimal definition, 1 GB equals 1000 MB, because a gigabyte is 10^9 bytes and a megabyte is 10^6 bytes. This is the definition used by drive manufacturers and by this converter for GB and MB.
- What is the difference between MB and MiB?
- A megabyte (MB) is 1,000,000 bytes (10^6), a decimal unit. A mebibyte (MiB) is 1,048,576 bytes (2^20), a binary unit. So 1 MiB is about 4.9% larger than 1 MB, and 1 GiB is 1024 MiB while 1 GB is 1000 MB.
- Why does my 1 TB drive show less space?
- The manufacturer sells 1 TB as 10^12 bytes (decimal), but many operating systems report space in binary units. Dividing 10^12 bytes by 1,073,741,824 gives about 931 GiB, which is often labeled "GB" in the interface, so the drive looks smaller even though no space is missing.
- How many bits are in a byte?
- There are 8 bits in a byte, so a bit is 0.125 of a byte. Network speeds are usually quoted in bits per second (Mbps), while file sizes are in bytes, which is why an 8 Mbps connection downloads at about 1 MB per second.
- How many GiB is 1 GB?
- One GB (10^9 bytes) equals about 0.931 GiB, because a GiB is 1,073,741,824 bytes. Conversely, 1 GiB equals about 1.074 GB. Enter your value and pick GB and GiB to see the exact figure.
- How many photos or songs fit in 64 GB?
- It depends on the size of each file. If a phone photo weighs about 4 MB, 64 GB (64,000 MB in decimal) holds around 16,000 photos. If an MP3 song weighs about 5 MB, it holds about 12,800 songs. These are estimates: the real size varies with quality and format.
- How long does it take to download a 1 GB file?
- It depends on your connection speed, which is measured in bits per second, not bytes. Since 1 byte is 8 bits, 1 GB equals 8 gigabits. On a 100 Mbps (megabits per second) connection, 1 GB takes about 8,000 ÷ 100 = 80 seconds at best, before network overhead.