💾 Converters

Byte Size Converter

Convert file sizes between bits, bytes, KB, MB, GB, TB and PB. Supports SI (decimal) and IEC (binary) scales. Instant result.

SI vs IEC: where the difference lives

In the SI (decimal) standard, the math runs in base 10: 1 KB equals 1,000 bytes. That's the reference disk makers and internet providers go by. The IEC (binary) standard works in base 2, where 1 KiB comes to 1,024 bytes. Operating systems use that one when reporting file sizes in RAM.

Convert file and data sizes

How many megabytes fit in that 2 GB file? And in bits, to estimate the download time? Converting between storage units tends to confuse because two different scales are floating around. Here you move values between bits, bytes, KB, MB, GB, TB and PB and get the result right away.

The tool covers the two conventions behind almost all the confusion. The SI scale is decimal, base 1000; the IEC scale is binary, base 1024. That difference explains why a "1 TB" drive shows less space on the system, and both sides sit side by side so you can compare.

All the math happens inside the browser, in the same moment. It helps when sizing storage, estimating transfers, planning backups, or just making sense of the numbers the system throws at you.

Frequently asked questions

How many MB/s does a 100 Mbps connection give?

Around 12.5 MB/s. Mbps means megabits per second and a byte holds eight bits, so the megabyte figure is the advertised rate divided by 8. This converter handles size, not speed: there is no per second unit in the list. To estimate a download, convert the file to megabits and divide by the rate of the connection.

Should I use the 1000 scale or the 1024 one?

It depends who is talking. Drive makers and internet providers use the decimal one, so 1 TB means one trillion bytes. Windows counts in base 1024 but writes GB, which is why the same disk reads smaller there; macOS and most Linux distributions report in base 1000. RAM is always binary, so an 8 GB stick really is 8 GiB. When the gap matters, quote the KiB, MiB and GiB labels.

Is the converted size the same as the space the file takes on disk?

Not always. File systems write in blocks, typically 4 KB on NTFS and ext4, so a 500 byte file still consumes 4096 bytes. That is why Windows reports size and size on disk as different numbers, and why thousands of tiny files eat far more than their total suggests. The conversion here is of the raw number, with no allowance for block size or metadata.

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