Kibibytes to Kilobytes (KiB to kB)
1 kibibyte equals 1.024 kilobytes exactly.
How to convert kibibytes to kilobytes
To convert kibibytes to kilobytes, multiply the number of kibibytes by 1.024. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply kilobytes by 0.9765625.
kilobytes = kibibytes × 1.024
Example: 10 kibibytes = 10.24 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
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
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 kibibytes (reverse)
- Kibibytes to bytes
- Kibibytes to megabytes
- Kibibytes to gigabytes
- Kibibytes to terabytes
- Kibibytes to bits
- Kibibytes to petabytes
- Kibibytes to mebibytes
- Kibibytes to gibibytes
- Kibibytes to tebibytes
- Kibibytes to kilobits
- Kibibytes to megabits
- Kibibytes to gigabits
- Bytes to kilobytes
- Megabytes to kilobytes
- Gigabytes to kilobytes
- Terabytes to kilobytes
- Bits to kilobytes
- Petabytes to kilobytes
- Mebibytes to kilobytes
- Gibibytes to kilobytes
- Tebibytes to kilobytes
- Kilobits to kilobytes
- Megabits to kilobytes
- Gigabits to kilobytes
See all digital storage units.