Calculator Use

Choose the input unit you have and the output unit you want to convert to. Enter the value you want to convert then click on the "Calculate" button.

In this conversion calculator prefixes for bits and bytes (kilo, mega, giga and tera) are in binary notation rather than the common SI unit decimal notation. Here, 1 kilobyte = 1024 bytes, 1 megabyte = 1024 kilobytes, 1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes, etc. (Wikipedia provides a more complete discussion of binary prefixes.) In common SI decimal notation using joules as an example, 1 kilojoule = 1000 joules, 1 megajoule = 1000 kilojoules, 1 gigajoule = 1000 megajoules, etc.

How to Convert Units of Bytes

To simply convert from any unit into bytes, for example, from 5 gigabytes, just multiply by the value in the right column in the Bytes Reference table below.

5 GB * 2³⁰ [B / GB] = 5,368,709,120 B

To convert from bytes back into units in the left column divide by the value in the right column or, multiply by the reciprocal, 1/x.

5,368,709,120 B / 2³⁰ [B / GB] = 5 GB

To convert among any units in the left column, say from A to B, you can multiply by the factor for A to convert A into bytes then divide by the factor for B to convert out of bytes. Or, you can find the single factor you need by dividing the A factor by the B factor.

For example, to convert from gigabytes to terabytes you would multiply by 2³⁰ then divide by 2⁴⁰. Or, multiply by 2³⁰/2⁴⁰ = 2^(30-40) = 2^-10. So, to convert directly from gigabytes to terabytes you multiply by 2^-10.

To understand how to also convert the units follow this example. Say you want to convert from exabytes to bytes. Since you can multiply anything by 1 and still retain the original value, but in different units, set it up so that EB will cancel out leaving you with B.

Since:
1 B = 2^-60 EB, 1 B / 2^-60 EB = 1

We can write the conversion as:
1 EB =
1 EB * (1 B / 2^-60 EB) =
1 EB * (2⁰ B / 2^-60 EB) =
1 EB * (2^{(0 - -60)}) [B / EB ] = 2⁶⁰ B

And we now have our factor for conversion from exabytes to bytes since 1 * 2⁶⁰ = 2⁶⁰.

Knowing that 1 EB = 2⁶⁰ B we can now find the conversion factor for converting back. Dividing both sides of the equation by 2⁶⁰ we get 2^-60 EB = 1 B. So, the conversion factor to convert from bytes to exabytes is 2^-60.

Cite this content, page or calculator as:

Furey, Edward "Computer Storage Units Conversion Calculator" at https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/conversions/computerstorage.php from CalculatorSoup, https://www.calculatorsoup.com - Online Calculators

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