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Digital Storage

Convert between bits, bytes and kilobytes through petabytes, using binary multiples.

Digital Storage Converter

Professional grade conversion for digital storage units.

Bit
Select Unit
0.125
Byte
Select Unit

Conversion Formula

1 Bit ≈ 0.125 Byte

What Digital Storage does

Storage units carry an ambiguity that causes real confusion: KB, MB and GB are used to mean both powers of 1000 and powers of 1024, depending on who is speaking. This converter uses the binary convention, where 1 KB is 1024 bytes.

That is the convention most operating systems apply when they report file and drive sizes, which is why a drive sold as 500 GB appears as roughly 465 GB once it is formatted. Nothing is missing; the two numbers are counted differently.

  • Bit and byte
  • Kilobyte through petabyte, each 1024 times the previous unit

How to use Digital Storage

  1. 1

    Enter the value

    Type the amount you want to convert. The result updates as you type.

  2. 2

    Select the units

    Choose what your value is in and what you want it in, for example megabytes to gigabytes.

  3. 3

    Copy the result

    The copy button gives you the unformatted number, without thousands separators, ready to paste into a spreadsheet or code.

Example

Where the missing capacity goes

Input

A drive advertised as 500 GB (decimal, 500,000,000,000 bytes)

Output

= 465.66 GB when counted in binary units (1 GB = 1024³ bytes)

Both figures describe the same drive. The manufacturer counts in powers of 1000; the operating system counts in powers of 1024.

Limits and known behaviour

  • Values here are binary. Storage manufacturers, network equipment and most standards bodies use decimal multiples, where 1 GB is 1,000,000,000 bytes.
  • The unambiguous binary names are KiB, MiB and GiB. They are correct but rare in everyday use, which is why the familiar abbreviations are shown.
  • A byte is assumed to be eight bits, which is universal on modern hardware but was not always so.
  • File sizes on disk differ from file sizes in bytes because of block allocation and filesystem overhead.
  • Arithmetic uses double-precision floating point, so a converted value can end in a small representation residue. That is a property of binary arithmetic, not of the conversion factor.

Privacy and data handling

Runs entirely in your browser

  • The conversion is arithmetic performed in this page. Nothing you enter is transmitted or stored.
  • The tool works offline once the page has loaded.

Site-wide data handling, including analytics and advertising, is described in the privacy policy.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my 1 TB drive show as 931 GB?

The manufacturer counted a terabyte as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. Your operating system divides that by 1024 three times, giving about 931. No space has been lost; the same bytes are being described with different units.

Which convention should I use?

Match your source. Use binary when reading an operating system's report of a file or volume, and decimal when reading a product specification or a bandwidth figure.