Giga, mega, tera, kilo? What do they mean? Use this quick reference chart to compare computer data file sizes.
The file size conversion table below shows the relationship between the file storage sizes that computers use. Binary calculations are based on units of 1,024, and decimal calculations are based on units of 1,000. It should be noted that decimal calculations are based on units that have been rounded off to the nearest 1,000 and therefore differ from the actual number of bytes used in binary calculations.
| Name | Symbol | Binary Measurement |
Decimal Measurement |
Number of Bytes | Equal to |
| kilobyte | KB | 2^10 | 10^3 | 1,024 | 1,024 bytes |
| megabyte | MB | 2^20 | 10^6 | 1,048,576 | 1,024KB |
| gigabyte | GB | 2^30 | 10^9 | 1,073,741,824 | 1,024MB |
| terabyte | TB | 2^40 | 10^12 | 1,099,511,627,776 | 1,024GB |
| petabyte | PB | 2^50 | 10^15 | 1,125,899,906,842,624 | 1,024TB |
| exabyte | EB | 2^60 | 10^18 | 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 | 1,024PB |
| zettabyte | ZB | 2^70 | 10^21 | 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 | 1,024EB |
| yottabyte | YB | 2^80 | 10^24 | 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 | 1,024ZB |
This article was originally published on November 09, 2003
