Units
Data storage converter
Gigabytes to megabytes, terabytes to gigabytes, and the GB versus GiB difference that explains the “missing” gigabytes.
Conversions are worked out on your own machine. No sign-up, no waiting and nothing sent anywhere.
Common conversions
| gigabyte | megabyte |
|---|---|
| 1 GB | 1,000 MB |
| 2 GB | 2,000 MB |
| 4 GB | 4,000 MB |
| 8 GB | 8,000 MB |
| 16 GB | 16,000 MB |
| 32 GB | 32,000 MB |
| 64 GB | 64,000 MB |
| gibibyte | gigabyte |
|---|---|
| 1 GiB | 1.0737 GB |
| 2 GiB | 2.1475 GB |
| 4 GiB | 4.295 GB |
| 8 GiB | 8.5899 GB |
| 16 GiB | 17.18 GB |
| 32 GiB | 34.36 GB |
| 64 GiB | 68.719 GB |
| terabyte | gigabyte |
|---|---|
| 1 TB | 1,000 GB |
| 2 TB | 2,000 GB |
| 4 TB | 4,000 GB |
| 8 TB | 8,000 GB |
| 16 TB | 16,000 GB |
| 32 TB | 32,000 GB |
| 64 TB | 64,000 GB |
| megabyte | kibibyte |
|---|---|
| 1 MB | 976.563 KiB |
| 2 MB | 1,953.13 KiB |
| 4 MB | 3,906.25 KiB |
| 8 MB | 7,812.5 KiB |
| 16 MB | 15,625 KiB |
| 32 MB | 31,250 KiB |
| 64 MB | 62,500 KiB |
| gigabyte | gibibyte |
|---|---|
| 1 GB | 0.931323 GiB |
| 2 GB | 1.8626 GiB |
| 4 GB | 3.7253 GiB |
| 8 GB | 7.4506 GiB |
| 16 GB | 14.901 GiB |
| 32 GB | 29.802 GiB |
| 64 GB | 59.605 GiB |
Worked out with the same factors the converter above uses.
This category has a quirk behind one of computing's oldest complaints: two families of prefixes coexist and they do not measure the same thing. The decimal ones go in thousands: a kilobyte is 1,000 bytes, a megabyte a million, a gigabyte a billion. The binary ones go in 1,024s: a kibibyte (KiB) is 1,024 bytes, a mebibyte 1,048,576, a gibibyte 1,073,741,824.
That is where the hard drive that looks smaller than the box promised comes from. The manufacturer advertises 1 TB using the decimal definition: a trillion bytes. The operating system divides by 1,024 three times, shows 0.909 TiB, and usually labels it “TB” anyway. Nothing is missing: they are the same bytes counted with a different ruler. The gap grows with size: 2.4% at kilobytes, 9.1% at terabytes.
The 1998 IEC standard created the names kibi, mebi and gibi precisely to undo the ambiguity, and today Linux and macOS honour them while Windows still says “GB” for what are GiB. One last common mix-up: a bit is not a byte. Your “600 meg” connection is 600 megabits per second, which divided by 8 is 75 megabytes per second of actual download.
Every unit in this category
Frequently asked questions
Why does my 1 TB drive show less capacity?
Because the manufacturer counts in decimal terabytes (a trillion bytes) and the operating system displays tebibytes (1,024⁴ bytes). It is 0.909 TiB: the same bytes, a different ruler. Nothing has been lost.
What is the difference between GB and GiB?
A GB is a billion bytes and a GiB is 1,073,741,824, 7.4% more. The “bi” prefixes — kibi, mebi, gibi — are the binary ones.
Does a 600 Mbps connection download 600 MB per second?
No: that is 600 megabits, and a byte is 8 bits. The real maximum download is about 75 megabytes per second.