Done

💾 Bit / Byte Converter

Convert between all digital storage units — bits, bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, petabytes and beyond — with SI and IEC binary standards, transfer time calculator, and real-world comparisons.

Convert
To:
Precision:
Quick Samples
Quick Byte Calc
Enter number of characters:
Unit Reference
SI (Decimal — powers of 10)
KB=10³ bytes MB=10⁶ bytes GB=10⁹ bytes TB=10¹² bytes PB=10¹⁵ bytes
IEC (Binary — powers of 2)
KiB=2¹⁰ bytes MiB=2²⁰ bytes GiB=2³⁰ bytes TiB=2⁴⁰ bytes PiB=2⁵⁰ bytes
SI vs IEC
Hard drive makers use SI units (1 GB = 10⁹ bytes), so a "1 TB" drive appears smaller in your OS.
Operating systems report storage in IEC/binary units — a "1 TB" drive shows as ~931 GiB in Windows/macOS.

About Digital Storage Units

Bits and Bytes

A bit is the most fundamental unit of digital information — it holds a 0 or 1. Eight bits form one byte, which can represent 256 different values (0–255). All digital data — text, images, audio, video — is ultimately stored as sequences of bits.

SI vs. IEC Standards

The SI (metric) standard uses powers of 10: 1 KB = 1,000 bytes. The IEC 80000-13 standard (1998) introduced binary prefixes: 1 KiB = 1,024 bytes. Hard drive makers use SI; RAM and OS file systems traditionally use binary — causing the "missing gigabytes" confusion on new drives.

Data Transfer Rates

Network speeds are measured in bits per second (bps), not bytes. A 100 Mbps connection transfers 100 million bits — or about 12.5 MB — per second. When downloading, always divide advertised Mbps by 8 to get the practical MB/s download speed you'll see in your browser.

Large-Scale Storage

Modern data centres operate at petabyte (PB) and exabyte (EB) scales. The entire internet generates roughly 2.5 quintillion bytes of data daily. A single exabyte equals 1 billion gigabytes — enough to store 250 million DVDs or over 11,500 years of HD video.