Gibibytes to Kilobytes (GiB to kB)
1 gibibyte equals 1,073,741.824 kilobytes exactly.
How to convert gibibytes to kilobytes
To convert gibibytes to kilobytes, multiply the number of gibibytes by 1,073,741.824. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply kilobytes by 9.313225746×10⁻⁷ (rounded).
kilobytes = gibibytes × 1,073,741.824
Example: 10 gibibytes = 10,737,418.24 kilobytes.
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
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
Kilobyte (kB)
1,000 bytes in the SI (decimal) definition. Older software and Windows sometimes use KB to mean 1,024 bytes; see kibibyte.
Few units have had two meanings for so long. By the mid-1960s most computers used binary addressing, so memory sizes came in powers of two and engineers borrowed kilo to mean 1,024. IBM documentation for the System/360 in 1964 used an uppercase K for 1,024. Hard disk makers took a different path from the start. The IEC later settled the question: kilobyte, symbol kB, means 1,000 bytes, and 1,024 bytes is a kibibyte.
Floppy disks show the muddle. The Shugart SA-400 of 1976 held 109,375 bytes unformatted and was advertised as 110 Kbyte, the decimal way, while a 1978 Tandon double-density disk held 368,640 bytes, or 360 times 1,024, and was sold as 360 KB. Windows still divides by 1,024, so a 65,536-byte file appears as 64 KB there, while Mac OS X Snow Leopard and later would call it 66 kB. A kilobyte is also tiny: Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado is 12,843 bytes.
1 kilobyte = 1,000 bytes (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Kilobyte; Wikipedia: Binary prefix; NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples
Related conversions
- Kilobytes to gibibytes (reverse)
- Gibibytes to bytes
- Gibibytes to megabytes
- Gibibytes to gigabytes
- Gibibytes to terabytes
- Gibibytes to bits
- Gibibytes to petabytes
- Gibibytes to kibibytes
- Gibibytes to mebibytes
- Gibibytes to tebibytes
- Gibibytes to kilobits
- Gibibytes to megabits
- Gibibytes to gigabits
- Bytes to kilobytes
- Megabytes to kilobytes
- Gigabytes to kilobytes
- Terabytes to kilobytes
- Bits to kilobytes
- Petabytes to kilobytes
- Kibibytes to kilobytes
- Mebibytes to kilobytes
- Tebibytes to kilobytes
- Kilobits to kilobytes
- Megabits to kilobytes
- Gigabits to kilobytes
See all digital storage units.