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Convert digital file sizes between bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, and petabytes on the binary 1024 scale.
Unit
Generated on July 8, 2026
Convert digital file sizes between bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, and petabytes on the binary 1024 scale.
A data-storage converter moves between bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, and petabytes — the units used when buying drives, estimating backup space, or planning cloud storage. This converter uses the binary (1,024-based) scale that operating systems use internally for RAM and files. Disk manufacturers, by contrast, use decimal (1,000-based) scale on the label — which is why a '1 TB' drive shows up in your operating system as about 931 GB.
Formula
1 KB = 1,024 B = 2¹⁰ B. Each next tier multiplies by 1,024. 1 MB = 2²⁰ B. 1 GB = 2³⁰ B.You buy a 1 TB external hard drive from Symbios or Imtiaz, plug it into Windows, and your File Explorer says it has 931 GB of capacity. You assume the drive is defective and start composing a complaint email — except the drive is fine. The manufacturer counted in decimal (1 TB = 10¹² bytes), the operating system counts in binary (1 TiB = 2⁴⁰ bytes), and the gap between those two ways of counting is exactly the 7 percent of "missing" capacity you're staring at. Every byte is present; only the math is different. This silent disagreement between the storage industry and the operating-system industry has caused more confused customer-service tickets than nearly any other tech issue. The honest fix would be for one side to capitulate, but neither has. Pragmatic rule: when planning storage purchases, mentally subtract 7-10 percent from the box capacity to estimate what your OS will report. A "4 TB" drive is really 3.6 TB usable in Windows. A "256 GB" iPhone is really 238 GB. A 32 GB USB stick gives you about 29.8 GB. Once you internalize this, the surprise stops being a surprise and just becomes the way storage actually works.
A data-storage converter moves between bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, and petabytes — the units used when buying drives, estimating backup space, or planning cloud storage. This converter uses the binary (1,024-based) scale that operating systems use internally for RAM and files. Disk manufacturers, by contrast, use decimal (1,000-based) scale on the label — which is why a '1 TB' drive shows up in your operating system as about 931 GB. The physical bytes are the same; only the counting convention differs.
The binary scale is used because computer memory is addressed in powers of two. 1 KiB (strictly: kibibyte) = 1,024 bytes, and this factor repeats all the way up the ladder. Manufacturers quote disk capacity in decimal (1,000-based) gigabytes to produce larger-looking numbers. Both conventions are technically valid, but mixing them causes visible confusion — such as a '1 TB' drive reporting as 931 GiB in Windows or macOS.
Data storage sizes using the binary (1,024) convention — the standard for RAM, file systems, and operating systems.
| Unit | Bytes | KB | MB | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 KB | 1,024 | 1 | 0.001 | — |
| 1 MB | 1,048,576 | 1,024 | 1 | 0.001 |
| 100 MB | 104,857,600 | 102,400 | 100 | 0.098 |
| 500 MB | 524,288,000 | 512,000 | 500 | 0.488 |
| 1 GB | 1,073,741,824 | 1,048,576 | 1,024 | 1 |
| 10 GB | 10,737,418,240 | 10,485,760 | 10,240 | 10 |
| 100 GB | 107,374,182,400 | 104,857,600 | 102,400 | 100 |
| 1 TB | 1,099,511,627,776 | 1,073,741,824 | 1,048,576 | 1,024 |
1 MB fits a medium-quality JPEG photo or about 500 pages of plain text.
1 GB can hold 250 high-resolution photos or ~3 hours of 480p video.
1 TB stores roughly 250,000 photos or ~250 HD movies — the sweet spot for modern external hard drives.
The entire printed collection of the US Library of Congress is estimated at ~10 TB of text data.
1 GB equals exactly 1,073,741,824 bytes in binary terms — used by operating systems when reporting file sizes.
1 TB equals 1,024 GB in binary (or 1,000 GB in decimal) — the difference explains why advertised drive capacity and reported OS capacity never match.
A 4K Blu-ray movie takes approximately 20 GB — a useful reference for sizing a travel drive.
1 PB equals 1,024 TB — the scale at which large enterprises and data centers plan storage growth.
A smartphone photo typically ranges 2–5 MB, so 1 GB holds roughly 200–500 photos depending on resolution.
A 30-minute 1080p video at 10 Mbps is approximately 2.25 GB — important when estimating upload time and storage.
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