Data Converter

How to use it

Data storage has two competing sets of units, which is the single biggest source of confusion in this category. A byte is 8 bits, and everything above that splits into two families depending on whether it counts in powers of 10 or powers of 2. The decimal family — kilobyte (KB), megabyte (MB), gigabyte (GB), terabyte (TB) — follows the same pattern as the metric system: 1 KB = 1,000 bytes, 1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes, and so on, each step multiplying by exactly 1,000. This is the convention hard drive and SSD manufacturers use on packaging, and it's also how network speeds are usually quoted. The binary family — kibibyte (KiB), mebibyte (MiB), gibibyte (GiB) — uses powers of 2 instead: 1 KiB = 1,024 bytes, 1 MiB = 1,048,576 bytes (1,024²), because computer memory is naturally organized in binary. This is what operating systems like Windows and macOS historically displayed, but often mislabeled with the decimal names (showing 'GB' when they meant GiB). That mismatch is exactly why a drive sold as '1 TB' (1,000,000,000,000 bytes, decimal) shows up as roughly 931 GB in a binary-counting file manager: 1,000,000,000,000 ÷ 1,073,741,824 (bytes per GiB) ≈ 931.32. Nothing is missing or defective — the drive has the bytes it was sold with, the two systems are just counting them differently. The gap grows at larger sizes, because each additional binary step (×1,024) compounds slightly more than each decimal step (×1,000). When precision matters — verifying a download, sizing a backup — check which family a number is quoted in before comparing it to another source.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my 1TB hard drive show less than 1TB of space?

Manufacturers count 1 TB as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes (decimal), but your operating system's file manager often counts in binary (1 TiB = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes) while still labeling it 'GB' or 'TB.' The drive isn't missing space — 1,000,000,000,000 bytes divided by the binary GB size just displays as about 931 GB.

What's the difference between a bit and a byte?

A bit is a single binary digit (0 or 1); a byte is a group of 8 bits. Network and internet speeds are usually quoted in bits per second (Mbps), while file sizes are quoted in bytes (MB) — that's why a '100 Mbps' connection downloads at about 12.5 MB/s, not 100 MB/s.

What does 'KiB' mean, and how is it different from 'KB'?

KiB (kibibyte) is exactly 1,024 bytes, a binary unit; KB (kilobyte) is exactly 1,000 bytes, a decimal unit, under the modern standard. They're often confused because older software labeled binary values with decimal names — this converter keeps them separate so you can convert accurately either way.

Why do file transfer speeds feel slower than my internet plan's advertised number?

Your plan is almost certainly advertised in megabits per second (Mbps), while file transfer progress bars usually show megabytes per second (MB/s). Since 1 byte is 8 bits, a 100 Mbps connection tops out around 12.5 MB/s — dividing the advertised number by 8 gives a realistic download speed estimate.