Bytes ≠ bits
1 B = 8 bits
Capital B means bytes. Lowercase b means bits, often used for network speeds. A 100 Mbps connection carries up to 12.5 MB per second before overhead.
Units of digital information
A byte measures an amount of data. KB, MB and GB are simply larger bundles of the same thing.
one step× 1,000
Each step adds three zeros. Memory Loss uses this scale by default.
choose a scale
explore here; your counter preference stays unchanged
One row = one step. Rows show powers, not relative bar lengths.
decimal / unit 03gigabyte
1 GB
= 1,000 megabytes
written in bytes
1,
One gigabyte contains 1,000 megabytes. The quantity stays the same; only the unit changes.
1,000 gigabytes → 1 terabyte
KB ≠ KiB
1 KB = 1,000 B
1 KiB = 1,024 B
1 KiB = 1,024 B
Decimal units use powers of 1,000; binary units use powers of 1,024. Here we use the familiar KB abbreviation for kilobyte; its strict SI form is kB.
Meet the yottabyte
1 YB = 1 trillion TB
The counter is around one yottabyte. Its large number is written in individual bytes; the smaller label expresses the same amount in a compact unit.
back to the live counter ↗Unit definitions: BIPM · decimal prefixes ↗ · NIST · bits, bytes and binary prefixes ↗