Gigabyte (GB)

ComputingCurrent unit

1,000,000,000 bytes (decimal). Storage manufacturers and phone makers use this definition.

1 gigabyte = 1,000,000,000 bytes (exactly).

1 gigabyte = 1,000,000,000 bytes

About the gigabyte

The gigabyte is where the decimal-versus-binary dispute turned into lawsuits. Drive makers advertise capacity in decimal units, so a 500 GB drive holds 500 billion bytes, but Windows reports sizes in binary units and shows about 465.7 of what it labels GB for the same drive. Early challenges against Western Digital and Seagate were settled, with Western Digital adding disclaimers that usable capacity may differ from the advertised figure.

A 2019 lawsuit was decided in the manufacturers' favor, with the court relying on the decimal definition. For scale, one gigabyte holds roughly an hour of standard-definition video at 2.2 Mbit/s. A single-layer DVD+R holds about 4.7 GB and a single-layer Blu-ray about 25 GB. RAM is still often sized in binary gigabytes, which the IEC would call gibibytes.

Sources: Wikipedia: Gigabyte; Wikipedia: Binary prefix; Wikipedia: Gibibyte

Gigabyte conversion chart

1 gigabyte expressed in every other digital storage unit:

Unit1 gigabyte
Bytes1,000,000,000
Kilobytes1,000,000
Megabytes1,000
Terabytes0.001
Bits8,000,000,000
Petabytes0.000001
Kibibytes976,562.5
Mebibytes953.6743164
Gibibytes0.9313225746
Tebibytes0.0009094947018
Kilobits8,000,000
Megabits8,000
Gigabits8
Exabytes1×10⁻⁹
Zettabytes1×10⁻¹²
Yottabytes1×10⁻¹⁵
Pebibytes8.881784197×10⁻⁷
Exbibytes8.67361738×10⁻¹⁰
Terabits0.008
Kibibits7,812,500
Mebibits7,629.394531
Gibibits7.450580597
Nibbles2,000,000,000

More Computing units

All Computing units

Browse all digital storage units.