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Data storage converter

A data storage converter changes a file or disk size between units, distinguishing decimal prefixes from binary ones. A megabyte is 1,000,000 bytes while a mebibyte is 1,048,576 bytes, so 1,024 MB equals 1.024 GB in decimal terms. This is why a drive sold as 1 TB reports as 931.32 GiB in an operating system.

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Result

1,024 MB converted

1.024 GB

1 MB = 0.001 GB

Conversion factor
1 MB = 0.001 GB
Reverse factor
1 GB = 1,000 MB
Rounded to 2 decimals
1.02 GB

1,024 MB equals 1.024 GB. The conversion factor is 1 MB = 0.001 GB, and the reverse is 1 GB = 1,000 MB.

How to use the data storage converter

  1. 01

    Enter the size

    Type the quantity you want to convert. Very large values in terabytes are handled without loss of precision.

  2. 02

    Choose the source unit

    Select the unit carefully: MB and MiB differ by 4.9%, and GB and GiB by 7.4%.

  3. 03

    Choose the target unit

    Select the unit you want the answer in. Use binary units to match what an operating system reports.

  4. 04

    Check the factor

    The rows beneath the result show the conversion factor in both directions, which makes the decimal-versus-binary gap explicit.

The formula

decimal: 1 kB = 1000 B        binary: 1 KiB = 1024 B        result = value × (factor_from ÷ factor_to)
B
Byte — eight bits, the standard addressable unit of storage.
kB, MB, GB, TB
Decimal SI prefixes: powers of 1,000. Used by storage manufacturers and network operators.
KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB
Binary IEC prefixes: powers of 1,024. Used by operating systems and memory addressing.
factor
Bytes per unit, used to route every conversion through bytes as the base.

IEC 80000-13 defines the binary prefixes kibi, mebi, gibi and tebi precisely to remove this ambiguity. Storage vendors use decimal units, most operating systems report binary units while labelling them with decimal names, and the resulting mismatch grows with scale — 7% at the gigabyte level and 9% at the terabyte level.

Worked example

Size
1024
From
Megabytes (decimal, 1000²)
To
Gigabytes (decimal, 1000³)
Result
1.024 GB

Convert to bytes first: 1,024 MB × 1,000,000 = 1,024,000,000 bytes. Divide by the bytes-per-gigabyte factor: 1,024,000,000 ÷ 1,000,000,000 = 1.024 GB. The same 1,024,000,000 bytes is only 0.9537 GiB in binary terms, because a gibibyte holds 1,073,741,824 bytes. The 1,024 figure feels like exactly one gigabyte only because binary and decimal names are routinely conflated.

Frequently asked questions

How many MB are in a GB?

In decimal terms, one gigabyte is 1,000 megabytes, because SI prefixes are powers of 1,000. In binary terms, one gibibyte is 1,024 mebibytes. The two are frequently confused because operating systems have long displayed binary quantities under decimal labels, showing 1,024 MiB and calling it 1 GB.

Why does a 1 TB hard drive show as 931 GB?

The manufacturer sells 1 terabyte as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes using decimal prefixes. Windows divides that figure by 1,024 three times and labels the result GB, giving 931.32 — which is really 931.32 GiB. No storage is missing; the two systems are counting in different bases. The discrepancy is 9.95% at terabyte scale.

What is the difference between a bit and a byte?

A bit is a single binary digit, either 0 or 1. A byte is eight bits and is the smallest individually addressable unit in most computer architectures. Storage is measured in bytes with a capital B, while network speed is measured in bits with a lowercase b — so a 100 Mbps connection transfers at most 12.5 MB per second.

What are KiB, MiB and GiB?

KiB, MiB and GiB are the binary prefixes standardised in IEC 80000-13: kibibyte, mebibyte and gibibyte, equal to 1,024, 1,048,576 and 1,073,741,824 bytes respectively. The three exist to state a binary quantity unambiguously. Linux and macOS have largely adopted the correct labelling; Windows continues to display binary values under decimal names.

How many photos or songs fit in a gigabyte?

One gigabyte holds roughly 250 songs at 128 kbps MP3, about 200 twelve-megapixel JPEG photographs, around 30 RAW images from a full-frame camera, or approximately eight minutes of 4K video at 100 Mbps. Compression settings dominate every one of these figures, so treat them as orders of magnitude.

Why is internet speed measured in megabits rather than megabytes?

Network engineering has measured serial transmission in bits per second since the era of telegraphy, and the convention persisted. Dividing by eight converts to bytes: a 100 Mbps connection has a theoretical ceiling of 12.5 MB per second, and protocol overhead usually reduces real throughput to roughly 11 to 12 MB per second.

Sources

Last reviewed: · Formula and sources verified by Syed Aqeel Ahmad Gillani. See the methodology for how every calculation is derived.

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