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Byte Conversion Calculator

Convert digital storage between bits, bytes, SI prefixes (kB, MB, GB) and binary prefixes (KiB, MiB, GiB).

Formula shown0 inputs definedFree, no sign-up

Quick Summary

Use this when you need:

Check whether a drive manufacturer is quoting decimal GB or binary GiB
Convert app download sizes from megabytes to mebibytes for release notes
Translate advertised bandwidth in bits per second into the bytes per second a file copy tool will show

You’ll get:Storage

How this is calculated

Formula:

storage_target = storage_source * (source_to_bytes / target_to_bytes)

In plain language:

Every storage amount is normalized into bytes, then scaled into the requested unit using the published SI or IEC conversion constants.

The formula is always visible so you can verify the math and explain your numbers to anyone who asks.

What these terms mean

Storage

Storage used in the calculation.

When to use this calculator

Check whether a drive manufacturer is quoting decimal GB or binary GiB
Convert app download sizes from megabytes to mebibytes for release notes
Translate advertised bandwidth in bits per second into the bytes per second a file copy tool will show

Last updated: November 18, 2025

Byte conversion explained

Vendors describe drives in decimal gigabytes, developers talk in gibibytes, and network teams still think in bits per second. The Byte Conversion Calculator keeps everyone honest by routing every value through bytes, then scaling it into the SI (kB, MB, GB) or IEC binary (KiB, MiB, GiB) prefixes defined by international standards. Drop in any size to answer "How big is that really?" without hand waving.

How the conversion works

Digital capacity conversions boil down to one ratio:

\text{target} = \text{source} \times \frac{k_\text{source}\,\text{bytes}}{k_\text{target}\,\text{bytes}}

Decimal prefixes follow powers of 1000 per the SI Brochure (1 MB = $10^6$ bytes).
Binary prefixes follow powers of 1024 defined by IEC 80000-13 (1 MiB = $2^{20}$ bytes).
Bits convert to bytes through $1\,\text{byte} = 8\,\text{bits}$ .

You can freely move between download sizes, firmware listings, or API quotas because the calculator always normalizes to pure bytes before returning another unit.

Units and conversions

Unit	Symbol	Relation
Bit	bit	$1\,\text{bit} = \tfrac{1}{8}\,\text{byte}$
Byte	B	base unit
Kilobyte	kB	$1\,\text{kB} = 1{,}000\,\text{bytes}$
Megabyte	MB	$1\,\text{MB} = 1{,}000{,}000\,\text{bytes}$
Gigabyte	GB	$1\,\text{GB} = 10^9\,\text{bytes}$
Kibibyte	KiB	$1\,\text{KiB} = 1{,}024\,\text{bytes}$
Mebibyte	MiB	$1\,\text{MiB} = 1{,}048{,}576\,\text{bytes}$
Gibibyte	GiB	$1\,\text{GiB} = 1{,}073{,}741{,}824\,\text{bytes}$

Use the SI card when quoting marketing specs or contract caps, and the IEC card when debugging code or interpreting OS disk usage.

Worked examples

Marketing GB vs. OS GiB
A drive advertises 256 MB. Convert to MiB to compare to an OS progress dialog.

\text{MiB} = 256\,\text{MB} \times \frac{1{,}000{,}000}{1{,}048{,}576} = 244.14\,\text{MiB}

Result: the OS will show about 244 MiB because it uses binary multiples.

File copy estimates
A 12 GiB backup needs to be compared to a cloud vendor that bills in decimal GB.

\text{GB} = 12\,\text{GiB} \times \frac{1{,}073{,}741{,}824}{1{,}000{,}000{,}000} \approx 12.88\,\text{GB}

Result: log 12.88 GB for billing and bandwidth projections.

Tips and pitfalls

Always ask whether a "gigabyte" means $10^9$ or $2^{30}$ bytes when reconciling purchase orders or SLAs.
Translate throughput in bits per second into bytes per second before comparing with file sizes—divide by 8 to keep download time math honest.
Binary units dominate in developer tools and OS utilities, while hardware datasheets default to decimal. Expect both to appear in the same incident ticket.
Round toward the user’s expectation: OS UIs usually show two decimal places, while compliance reports may require full byte counts.

References and further reading

Frequently Asked Questions

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Calculator info

Version:: v1.0.0
Sensitivity:: low
References:: 1

Last updated: November 18, 2025

Byte conversion explained

How the conversion works

Digital capacity conversions boil down to one ratio:

\text{target} = \text{source} \times \frac{k_\text{source}\,\text{bytes}}{k_\text{target}\,\text{bytes}}

Decimal prefixes follow powers of 1000 per the SI Brochure (1 MB = $10^6$ bytes).
Binary prefixes follow powers of 1024 defined by IEC 80000-13 (1 MiB = $2^{20}$ bytes).
Bits convert to bytes through $1\,\text{byte} = 8\,\text{bits}$ .

You can freely move between download sizes, firmware listings, or API quotas because the calculator always normalizes to pure bytes before returning another unit.

Units and conversions

Unit	Symbol	Relation
Bit	bit	$1\,\text{bit} = \tfrac{1}{8}\,\text{byte}$
Byte	B	base unit
Kilobyte	kB	$1\,\text{kB} = 1{,}000\,\text{bytes}$
Megabyte	MB	$1\,\text{MB} = 1{,}000{,}000\,\text{bytes}$
Gigabyte	GB	$1\,\text{GB} = 10^9\,\text{bytes}$
Kibibyte	KiB	$1\,\text{KiB} = 1{,}024\,\text{bytes}$
Mebibyte	MiB	$1\,\text{MiB} = 1{,}048{,}576\,\text{bytes}$
Gibibyte	GiB	$1\,\text{GiB} = 1{,}073{,}741{,}824\,\text{bytes}$

Use the SI card when quoting marketing specs or contract caps, and the IEC card when debugging code or interpreting OS disk usage.

Worked examples

Marketing GB vs. OS GiB
A drive advertises 256 MB. Convert to MiB to compare to an OS progress dialog.

\text{MiB} = 256\,\text{MB} \times \frac{1{,}000{,}000}{1{,}048{,}576} = 244.14\,\text{MiB}

Result: the OS will show about 244 MiB because it uses binary multiples.

File copy estimates
A 12 GiB backup needs to be compared to a cloud vendor that bills in decimal GB.

\text{GB} = 12\,\text{GiB} \times \frac{1{,}073{,}741{,}824}{1{,}000{,}000{,}000} \approx 12.88\,\text{GB}

Result: log 12.88 GB for billing and bandwidth projections.

Tips and pitfalls

Always ask whether a "gigabyte" means $10^9$ or $2^{30}$ bytes when reconciling purchase orders or SLAs.
Translate throughput in bits per second into bytes per second before comparing with file sizes—divide by 8 to keep download time math honest.
Binary units dominate in developer tools and OS utilities, while hardware datasheets default to decimal. Expect both to appear in the same incident ticket.
Round toward the user’s expectation: OS UIs usually show two decimal places, while compliance reports may require full byte counts.

Quick Summary

Calculator Tool

How this is calculated

What these terms mean

Storage

When to use this calculator

Byte conversion explained

How the conversion works

Units and conversions

Worked examples

Tips and pitfalls

References and further reading

Frequently Asked Questions

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Was this calculator helpful?

Found an error?

Calculator info

Byte conversion explained

How the conversion works

Units and conversions

Worked examples

Tips and pitfalls

References and further reading

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Calculators

Acreage Calculator

Acres to Hectares Converter

Acres to Square Feet Converter

Angle Conversion Calculator

Angstrom to nm converter

Area Converter

Was this calculator helpful?

Found an error?

Calculator info