CALTRX

Megabytes to Gigabytes

Convert file sizes between bytes, KB, MB, GB, TB and binary units. Decimal and binary standards explained.

Enter your values above to see the results.

Tips & Notes

  • ✓When comparing storage products: both must use same standard (decimal vs binary).
  • ✓RAM is always binary — 8 GB RAM = 8 GiB = 8,589,934,592 bytes exactly.
  • ✓Cloud storage quotas use decimal GB. A 15 GB Google Drive = 15,000,000,000 bytes.
  • ✓OS file explorers often show MiB/GiB but label them MB/GB — check your OS settings.

Common Mistakes

  • ✗Adding decimal and binary sizes directly — a 500 GB (decimal) drive + 500 GiB shows wrong total.
  • ✗Dividing download size by connection speed without unit conversion — Mbps ÷ 8 = MB/s.
  • ✗Assuming 1 GB = 1,024 MB universally — this is binary GiB. SI GB = 1,000 MB.
  • ✗Confusing kB (kilobytes) with Kb (kilobits) in network contexts.

Megabytes to Gigabytes Overview

What This Calculator Does

Converts between all file size units: bytes, KB, MB, GB, TB and their binary equivalents (KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB). Shows both decimal and binary values simultaneously.

Typical File Sizes by Type

| File Type | Typical Size | Notes | |-----------|-------------|-------| | Text email | 5–20 KB | Without attachments | | Word document | 100 KB–5 MB | With images | | MP3 (3 min) | 3–8 MB | 128–320 kbps | | JPEG photo | 2–8 MB | Smartphone camera | | RAW photo | 25–50 MB | Professional camera | | 1080p video (1 hr) | 4–8 GB | H.264 compressed | | 4K video (1 hr) | 15–100 GB | Depends on codec | | AAA game | 50–150 GB | Modern titles |

Storage Planning

1 TB = 1,000 GB holds approximately: 200,000 photos (5 MB each), 250 hours of 1080p video, or 10–20 modern games. For video editing, budget 3–5× the raw footage size for project files and exports.

Frequently Asked Questions

1 TB (decimal) = 1,000 GB. 1 TiB (binary) = 1,024 GiB. Hard drive makers use decimal; OS shows binary.

The SSD has 256 × 10^9 = 256,000,000,000 bytes. Windows divides by 2^30 (not 10^9) to get GiB: 256,000,000,000 ÷ 1,073,741,824 = 238.4 GiB, displayed as GB.

1 GB (decimal) = 1,000 MB. 1 GiB (binary) = 1,024 MiB. Consumer hard drives use GB; OS traditionally uses GiB.

Common units go up to TB and TiB. Beyond that: petabyte (PB = 10^15 B), exabyte (EB = 10^18 B), zettabyte (ZB = 10^21 B). Global internet traffic is now measured in zettabytes per year.