Byte Converter

Byte Converter — B, KB, MB, GB, TB, PB

There are two systems for digital storage units: SI (decimal, base 1000) and IEC (binary, base 1024).

When to use each

• SI (1000) — hard drive manufacturers, network speeds (Mbps);
• IEC (1024) — RAM, file systems, Windows, Linux file sizes.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why does Windows show a 500 GB hard drive as only 465 GB?

  This is caused by a difference in standards. Drive manufacturers use the decimal SI system (1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes), while operating systems like Windows and macOS use the binary IEC system (1 GiB = 1,073,741,824 bytes). Dividing 500,000,000,000 bytes by 1024 three times gives approximately 465.66 GiB. Switch between SI and IEC modes in our converter to see this difference clearly.

• What is the difference between a megabyte (MB) and a mebibyte (MiB)?

  A megabyte (MB) is a decimal unit equal to 1,000,000 bytes (10^6). A mebibyte (MiB) is a binary unit equal to 1,048,576 bytes (2^20). The difference is about 4.86%. In IT, binary prefixes (kibi-, mebi-, gibi-) are recommended for RAM and file sizes to avoid ambiguity, while the telecommunications industry typically uses decimal prefixes.

• How do I convert kilobytes to bytes for network packet size calculations?

  Select KB as the source unit and B (bytes) as the target. For networking contexts, always check whether the specification uses decimal kilobytes (1 KB = 1000 B) or binary kibibytes (1 KiB = 1024 B). Network protocols typically operate in binary units, so choose the IEC (1024) mode. Our converter lets you switch between both standards with a single click.