About the data size converter
There are two systems here and they do not agree. A kilobyte is 1,000 bytes; a kibibyte is 1,024. The prefixes kilo, mega and giga mean powers of a thousand everywhere else in measurement, and the binary prefixes kibi, mebi and gibi exist precisely so that computing can be unambiguous about which it means.
This is why a 500 GB drive appears to hold about 465 GB once installed: the manufacturer sold you 500 billion bytes, which is exactly what you got, and the operating system is reporting it in gibibytes while calling them GB.
Frequently asked questions
- Is anything I enter sent anywhere?
- No. Every conversion runs inside your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, stored or logged, and the page keeps working with the network disconnected.
- Why does my hard drive show less space than advertised?
- Because the two systems are being mixed. Drives are sold in decimal units - a 500 GB drive holds 500,000,000,000 bytes - and most operating systems divide by 1,024 three times and still print 'GB'. Nothing is missing; the same bytes are being counted in a different unit.
- What is the difference between a bit and a byte?
- Eight bits make a byte. Storage is quoted in bytes and network speeds in bits per second, which is why a 100 Mbps connection downloads at about 12.5 MB per second rather than 100.
- Should I use KB or KiB?
- Use KiB when you mean 1,024 bytes and KB when you mean 1,000. In practice, memory is always binary and storage and networking are always decimal.
Related converters
How your data is handled
Everything happens on your device. There is no upload, no storage and no logging. Closing the tab clears everything you entered.