Data Size Converter: Convert Data Units Instantly & Accurately
Decimal and binary data size conversion side by side.
A byte converter turns any data size into every other unit at once — bytes to KB, MB to GB, GB to TB, and bits to bytes. The only thing you have to decide is the base: 1 KB is 1,000 bytes in the decimal (SI) system used by storage vendors and network engineers, and 1,024 bytes in the binary (IEC) system used by operating systems. This converter shows both side by side so you never mix them up.
Bytes
1.0000e+12
KB (10³)
1.0000e+9
MB (10⁶)
1.0000e+6
GB (10⁹)
1,000
TB (10¹²)
1
KiB (2¹⁰)
9.7656e+8
MiB (2²⁰)
953,674.3164
GiB (2³⁰)
931.3226
TiB (2⁴⁰)
0.9095
Bits
8.0000e+12
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About this tool
Storage vendors use decimal units where 1 GB is 1,000,000,000 bytes; operating systems often report binary units where 1 GiB is 1,073,741,824 bytes. The gap is 7.4% at terabyte scale.
Decimal vs binary
Use GB for marketing and billing, GiB for memory and filesystem reporting. Always state which you mean in capacity planning docs.
Bits vs bytes
Network throughput is quoted in bits per second. Divide by eight to compare against file sizes in bytes.
Is a kilobyte 1000 or 1024 bytes?
Both answers are correct in their own context, which is exactly why file sizes never seem to add up. The SI definition — kilo = 1,000 — is what disk manufacturers, SSD labels, cloud storage bills and network throughput figures use. The binary definition — 2^10 = 1,024 — is what Windows, Linux tooling, RAM sizing and most programming languages report. To remove the ambiguity, the IEC defined separate binary names: kibibyte (KiB) = 1,024 bytes, mebibyte (MiB) = 1,024 KiB, gibibyte (GiB) = 1,024 MiB. A 1 TB drive holds 1,000,000,000,000 bytes, which your operating system displays as roughly 931 GiB. Nothing is missing; the two systems just count differently, and the gap widens by about 2.4% per unit step.
Bits versus bytes, and why your download is slower than your plan
One byte is eight bits. Storage is measured in bytes (MB, GB), while network speed is measured in bits per second (Mbps, Gbps). A 100 Mbps connection therefore delivers at most 12.5 MB/s, before protocol overhead. Converting the other way, a 2 GB file over a 50 Mbps link takes at least 2 × 1,000 × 8 / 50 = 320 seconds. Lowercase b means bits, uppercase B means bytes — the single most expensive typo in capacity planning.
Reading raw byte counts from logs and APIs
Most APIs, S3 listings, Content-Length headers and Prometheus metrics report plain byte integers. Numbers like 204800, 1048576 or 5242880 are worth recognising on sight: they are 200 KiB, 1 MiB and 5 MiB respectively. Paste any raw count into the converter above to get the human-readable form in both bases immediately, which is faster and safer than dividing by 1024 in your head three times.
Sizing storage and quotas without surprises
When you provision storage, state the base explicitly in the ticket and the code. Set upload limits in bytes rather than 'MB' so nobody has to guess: a 5 MB limit is 5,000,000 bytes to a product manager and 5,242,880 bytes to a backend engineer, and the difference generates real support tickets. For billing forecasts, use the decimal base — cloud providers bill in GB of 1,000,000,000 bytes — and add headroom for replication, snapshots and filesystem overhead, which typically consume 5–15% beyond the raw figure.
Data size units: decimal (SI) versus binary (IEC)
| Unit | Decimal name | Decimal bytes | Binary name | Binary bytes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 K | Kilobyte (KB) | 1,000 | Kibibyte (KiB) | 1,024 |
| 1 M | Megabyte (MB) | 1,000,000 | Mebibyte (MiB) | 1,048,576 |
| 1 G | Gigabyte (GB) | 1,000,000,000 | Gibibyte (GiB) | 1,073,741,824 |
| 1 T | Terabyte (TB) | 1,000,000,000,000 | Tebibyte (TiB) | 1,099,511,627,776 |
| 1 P | Petabyte (PB) | 1,000,000,000,000,000 | Pebibyte (PiB) | 1,125,899,906,842,624 |
Common conversions at a glance
| Conversion | Decimal result | Binary result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 byte to bits | 8 bits | 8 bits |
| 1 KB to bytes | 1,000 B | 1,024 B |
| 1 MB to KB | 1,000 KB | 1,024 KB |
| 1 GB to MB | 1,000 MB | 1,024 MB |
| 1 TB to GB | 1,000 GB | 1,024 GB |
| 100 GB to KB | 100,000,000 KB | 104,857,600 KB |
| 204,800 bytes | 204.8 KB | 200 KiB |
| 1,048,576 bytes | 1.049 MB | 1 MiB |
How to use Data Size Converter
- 1
Open Data Size Converter
Everything runs on this page — there is nothing to install and no account required to use the free features.
- 2
Add your input
Paste or enter your values in the panel above. The tool updates as you type, so you can iterate quickly.
- 3
Review the output
Check the result, copy it with one click, and adjust the options until it matches what your system expects.
- 4
Take it further
Use the security & infrastructure tips below to make the result production-ready, then unlock the gated extras via the form above.
Best practices
- Treat every result as a snapshot — configuration drifts, so re-check after each deploy.
- Fix the highest-impact finding first rather than chasing a perfect score.
- Apply changes at the shared layer (proxy, CDN, base image) so every service inherits them.
- Document what you changed and when; auditors and future teammates will ask.
Data Size Converter — Why it matters
Infrastructure and security misconfigurations are among the most common root causes of real incidents, and almost all of them are cheap to fix once visible.
Leaving them unaddressed means failed audits, blocked enterprise deals, and avoidable exposure.
Related free & paid tools
| Tool name | Type | Key features | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| NIST binary prefixes | Free | The KiB vs KB definitions to cite in specs | Visit |
| ncdu | Free | Interactive disk usage analyser for servers | Visit |
| AWS Pricing Calculator | Free | Turn storage and egress sizes into monthly cost | Visit |
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