Zettabytes to Bytes (ZB to B)

1 zettabyte equals 1×10²¹ bytes exactly.

1 zettabyte = 1×10²¹ bytes

How to convert zettabytes to bytes

To convert zettabytes to bytes, multiply the number of zettabytes by 1×10²¹. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply bytes by 1×10⁻²¹.

bytes = zettabytes × 1×10²¹

Example: 10 zettabytes = 1×10²² bytes.

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

Zettabyte (ZB)

ComputingCurrent unit

10²¹ bytes. Used for estimates of global data volumes.

Global data volumes are now large enough that the zettabyte, 10^21 bytes, has become a headline unit. It is decimal: 1,000 exabytes, or a trillion gigabytes, and the symbol is ZB. The prefix zetta was added to the SI in 1991 alongside yotta, and the binary counterpart is the zebibyte (ZiB), 2^70 bytes, which is about 18 percent larger.

Wikipedia's article on the Zettabyte Era puts the point when total digital data first passed one zettabyte at 2012. It also records Cisco's estimate that global IP network traffic first topped one zettabyte in 2016, at about 1.2 ZB, or roughly 96 exabytes a month. IDC forecasts quoted there projected annual data generation reaching 175 ZB by 2025, though such figures are estimates of data created rather than data kept, and they vary between analysts.

Almost nothing is stored in single zettabyte devices, so the unit matters mainly for industry totals.

1 zettabyte = 1×10²¹ bytes (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Zettabyte Era; Wikipedia: Metric prefix; Wikipedia: Byte

Byte (B)

ComputingCurrent unit

Eight bits. The basic addressable unit of memory and storage.

Werner Buchholz coined the word byte in June 1956 while working on the IBM Stretch computer; the earliest supporting document is dated 11 June 1956. He respelled bite on purpose, in his words to avoid accidental mutation to bit. At that stage a byte was any group of one to six bits, and a move to eight bits was considered in August 1956 and built into the design soon after. Louis Dooley later claimed he had coined the term around 1956 or 1957 on the SAGE project at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where it meant groups of four bits, but Fred Brooks credited Buchholz.

IBM's System/360 adopted the eight-bit byte, and its success made that size the standard. The symbol is a capital B, and the unambiguous alternative is octet, a word used in protocol standards such as RFC 791. A byte can hold 256 distinct values, enough for a letter of the alphabet in a simple character set, which is why files and memory addresses are counted in bytes.

The byte is the reference unit for digital storage on this site.

Sources: Wikipedia: Byte; Wikipedia: Binary prefix

Related conversions

See all digital storage units.