Gigabytes to Kibibytes (GB to KiB)
1 gigabyte equals 976,562.5 kibibytes exactly.
How to convert gigabytes to kibibytes
To convert gigabytes to kibibytes, multiply the number of gigabytes by 976,562.5. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply kibibytes by 0.000001024.
kibibytes = gigabytes × 976,562.5
Example: 10 gigabytes = 9,765,625 kibibytes.
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
Gigabyte (GB)
1,000,000,000 bytes (decimal). Storage manufacturers and phone makers use this definition.
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.
1 gigabyte = 1,000,000,000 bytes (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Gigabyte; Wikipedia: Binary prefix; Wikipedia: Gibibyte
Kibibyte (KiB)
Exactly 1,024 bytes (2¹⁰). The IEC name for the binary kilobyte, used by operating systems and memory specifications.
Kibibyte is the first of the names the IEC approved in December 1998 for binary multiples, built from kilobinary. The IUPAC's Interdivisional Committee on Nomenclature and Symbols had proposed binary prefixes in 1995, and the IEC published them in January 1999. The symbol KiB adds an i to the SI symbol, with the K capitalized. NIST says the names keep the first two letters of each SI prefix and add bi, to signal binary.
One KiB is exactly 1,024 bytes, about 2.4 percent more than a kilobyte. The standard is now IEC 80000-13, supported by the BIPM, IEC and NIST. In practice the symbols are rarely used outside a few places such as KDE and Qt-based applications, which can switch between SI and binary units. Donald Knuth jokingly suggested in 1999 calling it a large kilobyte, KKB.
1 kibibyte = 1,024 bytes (exactly).
Sources: NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples; Wikipedia: Kibibyte
Related conversions
- Kibibytes to gigabytes (reverse)
- Gigabytes to bytes
- Gigabytes to kilobytes
- Gigabytes to megabytes
- Gigabytes to terabytes
- Gigabytes to bits
- Gigabytes to petabytes
- Gigabytes to mebibytes
- Gigabytes to gibibytes
- Gigabytes to tebibytes
- Gigabytes to kilobits
- Gigabytes to megabits
- Gigabytes to gigabits
- Bytes to kibibytes
- Kilobytes to kibibytes
- Megabytes to kibibytes
- Terabytes to kibibytes
- Bits to kibibytes
- Petabytes to kibibytes
- Mebibytes to kibibytes
- Gibibytes to kibibytes
- Tebibytes to kibibytes
- Kilobits to kibibytes
- Megabits to kibibytes
- Gigabits to kibibytes
See all digital storage units.