Kilobits to Kibibytes (kb to KiB)

1 kilobit equals 0.1220703125 kibibytes exactly.

How to convert kilobits to kibibytes

To convert kilobits to kibibytes, multiply the number of kilobits by 0.1220703125. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply kibibytes by 8.192.

kibibytes = kilobits × 0.1220703125

Example: 10 kilobits = 1.220703125 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

Kilobit (kb)

ComputingCurrent unit

1,000 bits (125 bytes). Used for data rates and sizes in telecommunications.

Kilobit means a thousand bits, and in telecommunications data rates are usually measured in decimal SI multiples. The article on the bit gives a handy example: a channel capacity of 8 kbit/s is 1 kB/s, so dividing kilobits by eight gives kilobytes. The binary counterpart, the kibibit, is 1,024 bits, but it is seldom used.

Symbols cause trouble. The IEC standard says to write kbit, while IEEE 1541-2002 recommends a lowercase b, giving kb, and the lowercase b may be confused with capital B for byte. On this site a kilobit is 125 bytes. The history behind it is that of the bit itself: Ralph Hartley proposed a logarithmic information measure in 1928, and Claude Shannon first used the word in 1948, crediting John W. Tukey.

1 kilobit = 125 bytes (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Bit; Wikipedia: Kilobit

Kibibyte (KiB)

ComputingCurrent unit

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

See all digital storage units.