Data Storage Converter
Convert decimal storage units such as GB and MB and binary IEC units such as GiB and MiB.
- Free
- No signup
- Runs in your browser
Enter a value to see the conversion.
How it works
How to use
Choose decimal SI or binary IEC storage units and enter a value.
Method
Decimal units use powers of 1000; IEC units use powers of 1024. KB and KiB are intentionally different.
Example
1 GB equals 1000 MB, while 1 GiB equals 1024 MiB.
Why a 1 TB drive becomes about 931 GiB
Nothing has disappeared in the conversion. A decimal terabyte is 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. A gibibyte is 1,073,741,824 bytes. Divide the same byte count by the larger GiB unit and the result is about 931.3225746 GiB.
That number is only the capacity expressed in another unit. A real formatted drive can show less usable space because partitions, filesystem structures, recovery data, and stored files are separate from the GB-to-GiB calculation.
GB and GiB belong to different prefix systems
KB, MB, GB, and TB are decimal units in this converter. Each step is 1,000 times the previous one: 1 KB = 1,000 B, 1 MB = 1,000,000 B, 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 B, and 1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 B.
KiB, MiB, GiB, and TiB are IEC binary units. Their steps are powers of 1,024: 1 KiB = 1,024 B, 1 MiB = 1,048,576 B, 1 GiB = 1,073,741,824 B, and 1 TiB = 1,099,511,627,776 B. The extra i in the symbol is meaningful; GB and GiB are not alternate spellings.
The byte is the common ground
Bytes provide a neutral reference when decimal and binary prefixes are compared side by side.
| Unit | Bytes in 1 unit |
|---|---|
| B | 1 |
| KB | 1,000 |
| KiB | 1,024 |
| MB | 1,000,000 |
| MiB | 1,048,576 |
| GB | 1,000,000,000 |
| GiB | 1,073,741,824 |
| TB | 1,000,000,000,000 |
| TiB | 1,099,511,627,776 |
A few conversions that expose the difference
1 GB is approximately 953.6743164 MiB, while 1 GiB is exactly 1,024 MiB. In the other direction, 1 GiB is approximately 1.073741824 GB. At terabyte scale the gap is easier to notice: 1 TB is about 931.3225746 GiB, while 1 TiB is about 1.099511627776 TB.
When a displayed capacity is ambiguous, check whether the source uses a decimal symbol such as GB or an IEC binary symbol such as GiB before converting it.
Storage bytes are not transfer-rate bits
The selectable units on this page are byte units. There is no bit, kilobit, megabit, or gigabit option. A network speed such as 100 Mbps therefore should not be entered as though it were 100 MB: bits and bytes are different quantities, and transfer rates add a time dimension that storage capacity does not have.
Frequently asked questions about Data Storage Converter
Is 1 KB equal to 1,000 or 1,024 bytes?
In this converter, KB is the decimal SI-style unit and equals 1,000 bytes. The binary 1,024-byte unit is KiB.
Why does software sometimes label binary-sized values as KB, MB, or GB?
Historical software conventions have not always used the modern IEC symbols consistently. SnakTool avoids that ambiguity by treating KB, MB, GB, and TB as decimal and KiB, MiB, GiB, and TiB as binary.
What is the difference between GB and GiB?
GB is decimal and equals 1,000,000,000 bytes; GiB is binary and equals 1,073,741,824 bytes.
What is the difference between MB and MiB?
MB is decimal and equals 1,000,000 bytes; MiB is binary and equals 1,048,576 bytes.
How many MiB are in one GiB?
One GiB is exactly 1,024 MiB.
How many MB are in one GB?
One GB is exactly 1,000 MB in the decimal system used by this converter.
How many GiB are in one TB?
One decimal terabyte is approximately 931.3225746 GiB.
Why can a 1 TB drive appear smaller in software?
A decimal 1 TB is 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. Software that expresses the same byte count using binary-sized units can show about 931.32 GiB; formatting and stored data can reduce usable space separately.
Does this converter support bits or megabits?
No. The selectable units are bytes and byte-based decimal or IEC binary multiples.
Are KB and KiB interchangeable?
No. KB is 1,000 bytes here, while KiB is 1,024 bytes.