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Data Storage Converter

Convert between bit, byte, KB, MB, GB, TB, PB, KiB, MiB, GiB, and TiB instantly

Converted Result
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All Conversions

Binary vs Decimal: What is the Difference?

Storage manufacturers use decimal (base-10) units where 1 KB = 1,000 bytes. Operating systems often use binary (base-2) units where 1 KiB = 1,024 bytes. This is why a 500 GB hard drive shows as about 465 GiB in your OS.

Decimal (SI) Base Binary (IEC) Base Difference
1 KB 103 = 1,000 B 1 KiB 210 = 1,024 B +2.4%
1 MB 106 = 1,000,000 B 1 MiB 220 = 1,048,576 B +4.9%
1 GB 109 = 1,000,000,000 B 1 GiB 230 = 1,073,741,824 B +7.4%
1 TB 1012 = 1,000,000,000,000 B 1 TiB 240 = 1,099,511,627,776 B +10.0%

Common Storage References

Item Approximate Size In MB In GB
Plain Text (1 page) 2 KB 0.002 ~0
Photo (JPEG) 3 MB 3 0.003
MP3 Song (3 min) 5 MB 5 0.005
HD Movie (1080p) 4 GB 4,000 4
Smartphone Storage 128 GB 128,000 128
SSD Drive 1 TB 1,000,000 1,000
Enterprise Server 100 TB 100,000,000 100,000
Large Data Center 1 PB 1,000,000,000 1,000,000
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