Kibibytes to Bits (KiB to bit)
1 kibibyte equals 8,192 bits exactly.
How to convert kibibytes to bits
To convert kibibytes to bits, multiply the number of kibibytes by 8,192. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply bits by 0.0001220703125.
bits = kibibytes × 8,192
Example: 10 kibibytes = 81,920 bits.
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
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
Bit (bit)
The smallest unit of digital information: a single 0 or 1. Eight bits make a byte.
Bit is short for binary digit, and the word was coined by John W. Tukey. He shortened the phrase in a Bell Labs memo dated 9 January 1947. Claude Shannon first used it in print in his 1948 paper A Mathematical Theory of Communication and credited Tukey with the word. The idea predates the name: Ralph Hartley proposed a logarithmic measure of information in 1928, and punched cards, invented by Basile Bouchon and Jean-Baptiste Falcon in 1732 and developed by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1804, already stored one bit per hole position.
A bit holds one of two values, written 0 or 1, and everything digital is built from them. Eight bits make a byte, so a bit is one eighth of a byte. Symbols for the unit are not settled: the IEC standard uses bit, while IEEE 1541-2002 recommends a lowercase b, with uppercase B reserved for the byte. The difference matters because internet speeds and file sizes are quoted in different units.
1 bit = 0.125 bytes (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Bit; NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples
Related conversions
- Bits to kibibytes (reverse)
- Kibibytes to bytes
- Kibibytes to kilobytes
- Kibibytes to megabytes
- Kibibytes to gigabytes
- Kibibytes to terabytes
- Kibibytes to petabytes
- Kibibytes to mebibytes
- Kibibytes to gibibytes
- Kibibytes to tebibytes
- Kibibytes to kilobits
- Kibibytes to megabits
- Kibibytes to gigabits
- Bytes to bits
- Kilobytes to bits
- Megabytes to bits
- Gigabytes to bits
- Terabytes to bits
- Petabytes to bits
- Mebibytes to bits
- Gibibytes to bits
- Tebibytes to bits
- Kilobits to bits
- Megabits to bits
- Gigabits to bits
See all digital storage units.