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Data Storage Converter online

Convert between bits, bytes, KB, MB, GB, TB — binary and SI units

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CHUNKY
MUNSTER

How to Use data-storage-converter

  1. Enter a value in any unit: bits, bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, or terabytes.
  2. All conversions appear instantly across binary (IEC) and decimal (SI) prefixes.
  3. Toggle between base-2 (1 KB = 1,024 bytes) and base-10 (1 KB = 1,000 bytes) conventions.
  4. Copy any result from the output table.

Storage units are notoriously ambiguous — a "1 TB" hard drive uses the SI definition (10¹² bytes) while your operating system reports it as 931 GB using the binary definition (2⁴⁰ bytes). This converter handles both SI (kilo/mega/giga/tera = powers of 1,000) and IEC (kibi/mebi/gibi/tebi = powers of 1,024) prefixes, making the "missing storage" mystery immediately clear.

SI vs IEC Storage Units

The IEC 80000-13 standard introduced separate prefixes for binary multiples to end the confusion: kibibyte (KiB) = 1,024 bytes; mebibyte (MiB) = 1,048,576 bytes; gibibyte (GiB) = 1,073,741,824 bytes. Drive manufacturers use SI prefixes (KB = 1,000, MB = 1,000,000) because they give larger-seeming numbers. Operating systems traditionally used SI prefix names but IEC binary values — reporting a 1 TB (10¹² byte) drive as 931 GB (2³⁰ × 931 bytes). macOS switched to SI (base-10) reporting in 10.6 Snow Leopard; Windows still uses binary values with SI prefix names.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my 1 TB hard drive only show 931 GB in Windows?

1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes (manufacturer). Windows reports in GiB (1,073,741,824 bytes each) but labels it "GB". So 1,000,000,000,000 ÷ 1,073,741,824 ≈ 931. No space is missing — it is a unit labelling difference.

What is a gibibyte?

A gibibyte (GiB) = 2³⁰ = 1,073,741,824 bytes. It is the IEC standard term for what was historically called a "gigabyte" in computing contexts. The SI gigabyte (GB) = 10⁹ = 1,000,000,000 bytes.

What units do RAM specifications use?

RAM is specified in binary units — a 16 GB RAM module is actually 16 GiB (2⁴ × 1,073,741,824 bytes). RAM manufacturers use binary prefixes consistently, unlike storage manufacturers.

How do internet speeds relate to file sizes?

Internet speeds are in megabits per second (Mbps). File sizes are in megabytes (MB). Divide Mbps by 8 to get MB/s download speed. A 100 Mbps connection downloads at ~12.5 MB/s; a 1 GB file takes ~80 seconds.

See also the Unit Converter for length/weight/temperature and the Binary to Decimal converter.