Data Storage Converter — SI & IEC Units
Type a value in any field and every other data storage unit updates instantly. Bytes, KB, MB, GB, TB — plus their binary equivalents KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB — all in one place.
Used by drive manufacturers & network speeds.
Used by operating systems & RAM.
Drive manufacturers advertise capacity using SI decimal units (1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes), but your operating system reports in IEC binary units (1 TiB = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes).
This means a “1 TB” drive actually shows as approximately 931 GiB in your OS — roughly 7% less for every TB advertised. The bytes are all there; they are just counted differently.
How to use this tool
- 1Find the unit you know
Locate the input field for the data unit you have — for example, megabytes (MB) or gibibytes (GiB). The tool includes both SI and IEC standards.
- 2Type the value
Enter your number into the field. All other unit fields update instantly as you type — no button click needed.
- 3Copy the result
Click the copy button next to any converted value to copy it to your clipboard. Use Clear All to reset everything.
SI vs IEC data storage units
SI (decimal) units
The International System of Units defines kilobyte (KB) as 1,000 bytes, megabyte (MB) as 1,000,000 bytes, gigabyte (GB) as 109 bytes, and terabyte (TB) as 1012 bytes. Hard drive manufacturers, network speeds, and most consumer marketing use SI units. Each step is a clean factor of 1,000.
IEC (binary) units
The International Electrotechnical Commission introduced kibibyte (KiB = 1,024 bytes), mebibyte (MiB = 1,048,576 bytes), gibibyte (GiB = 230 bytes), and tebibyte (TiB = 240 bytes) to avoid ambiguity. RAM is always measured in binary units. Operating systems like Windows display binary sizes but often mislabel them as MB/GB.
Why the confusion?
Historically, “kilobyte” meant 1,024 bytes in computing because memory chips use powers of two. The IEC introduced distinct binary prefixes (Ki, Mi, Gi) in 1998 to resolve the ambiguity, but adoption has been slow. This tool shows both standards side by side so you always know the exact byte count.
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