Bytes to Gibibytes (B to GiB)
1 byte equals 9.313225746×10⁻¹⁰ gibibytes (rounded).
How to convert bytes to gibibytes
To convert bytes to gibibytes, multiply the number of bytes by 9.313225746×10⁻¹⁰. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply gibibytes by 1,073,741,824.
gibibytes = bytes × 9.313225746×10⁻¹⁰
Example: 10 bytes = 9.313225746×10⁻⁹ gibibytes.
Decimal prefixes (kB, MB, GB) are powers of 1,000; binary prefixes (KiB, MiB, GiB) are powers of 1,024. Storage makers use decimal; Windows reports binary but labels it GB.
About these units
Byte (B)
Eight bits. The basic addressable unit of memory and storage.
Werner Buchholz coined the word byte in June 1956 while working on the IBM Stretch computer; the earliest supporting document is dated 11 June 1956. He respelled bite on purpose, in his words to avoid accidental mutation to bit. At that stage a byte was any group of one to six bits, and a move to eight bits was considered in August 1956 and built into the design soon after. Louis Dooley later claimed he had coined the term around 1956 or 1957 on the SAGE project at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where it meant groups of four bits, but Fred Brooks credited Buchholz.
IBM's System/360 adopted the eight-bit byte, and its success made that size the standard. The symbol is a capital B, and the unambiguous alternative is octet, a word used in protocol standards such as RFC 791. A byte can hold 256 distinct values, enough for a letter of the alphabet in a simple character set, which is why files and memory addresses are counted in bytes.
The byte is the reference unit for digital storage on this site.
Sources: Wikipedia: Byte; Wikipedia: Binary prefix
Gibibyte (GiB)
Exactly 1,073,741,824 bytes (2³⁰), about 7.4% larger than a gigabyte. Windows displays this as 'GB', which is why a 500 GB drive appears as about 465 GB.
Gibibyte is the unit that explains why a new drive looks smaller than its box says. It is the IEC name, from December 1998, for 2 to the thirtieth bytes, or 1,073,741,824 bytes, chosen to denote powers of 1,024 unambiguously. A GiB is about 7.4 percent larger than a decimal gigabyte, so a drive advertised as 500 GB holds 500 billion bytes, which is about 465.7 GiB.
Windows reports that number with the label GB, so users see a shortfall. RAM is still counted in the binary sense, while hard drives, SSDs, flash media and optical discs are usually labeled in decimal units. Courts have held that the legal definition of GB is the decimal one. The symbol GiB is formed by adding an i to GB, and apart from KDE and Qt-based applications it is rarely used in practice.
1 gibibyte = 1,073,741,824 bytes (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Gibibyte; NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples
Related conversions
- Gibibytes to bytes (reverse)
- Bytes to kilobytes
- Bytes to megabytes
- Bytes to gigabytes
- Bytes to terabytes
- Bytes to bits
- Bytes to petabytes
- Bytes to kibibytes
- Bytes to mebibytes
- Bytes to tebibytes
- Bytes to kilobits
- Bytes to megabits
- Bytes to gigabits
- Kilobytes to gibibytes
- Megabytes to gibibytes
- Gigabytes to gibibytes
- Terabytes to gibibytes
- Bits to gibibytes
- Petabytes to gibibytes
- Kibibytes to gibibytes
- Mebibytes to gibibytes
- Tebibytes to gibibytes
- Kilobits to gibibytes
- Megabits to gibibytes
- Gigabits to gibibytes
See all digital storage units.