Data Storage Converter

Understanding Digital Information Sizes

This Data Storage Converter helps you understand the relationships between different units of digital information. It converts values between bytes, kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), and terabytes (TB), using the binary prefix system (powers of 1024) which is standard in computing for memory and storage capacity.

The Conversion Formulas Explained

In digital storage, units typically scale by powers of 1024 (which is 2¹⁰).

• 1 Kilobyte (KB) = 1024 Bytes
• 1 Megabyte (MB) = 1024 Kilobytes
• 1 Gigabyte (GB) = 1024 Megabytes
• 1 Terabyte (TB) = 1024 Gigabytes

How to Use the Calculator

This is a real-time converter. Simply enter a value into any of the fields (e.g., enter 1 in the Gigabytes field), and all other fields will automatically update with the equivalent converted values.

Real-World Example

You have a file that is 2,500,000 Kilobytes.

• Enter 2500000 into the Kilobytes field.
• The Megabytes field will automatically update to 2441.4 (2,500,000 / 1024).
• The Gigabytes field will update to 2.38 (2441.4 / 1024).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• Why do hard drive manufacturers sometimes use powers of 1000? This is a common source of confusion. Some storage manufacturers use the decimal system (powers of 1000) for marketing, which makes drive capacities appear larger. For example, they might define 1 GB as 1 billion bytes. However, operating systems like Windows use the binary system (powers of 1024), which is why a '500 GB' hard drive might appear as only ~465 GB on your computer. This calculator uses the binary standard (1024).
• What's a bit vs. a byte? A bit is the smallest unit of data, a single 0 or 1. A byte is a group of 8 bits. This calculator deals with bytes and its multiples.
• How big is a petabyte? A petabyte is 1024 terabytes. It's a massive amount of data; it's estimated that all the photos on Facebook total hundreds of petabytes.