TTechTools

Storage Capacity Calculator

Compute storage capacity across decimal (1000) and binary (1024) formats to understand actual usable space.

Quick Presets:

Conversion Results (1 GB)

Exact Raw: 1,000,000,000 Bytes
Bit (bit)Raw
8,000,000,000

Fundamental binary digit (0 or 1)

Byte (B)Raw
1,000,000,000

8 bits

Kilobyte (KB)Decimal (SI)
1,000,000

1,000 Bytes (10³)

Kibibyte (KiB)Binary (IEC)
976,562.5

1,024 Bytes (2¹⁰)

Megabyte (MB)Decimal (SI)
1,000

1,000,000 Bytes (10⁶)

Mebibyte (MiB)Binary (IEC)
953.674316

1,048,576 Bytes (2²⁰)

Gigabyte (GB)Decimal (SI)
1

1,000,000,000 Bytes (10⁹)

Gibibyte (GiB)Binary (IEC)
0.931323

1,073,741,824 Bytes (2³⁰)

Terabyte (TB)Decimal (SI)
0.001

1,000,000,000,000 Bytes (10¹²)

Tebibyte (TiB)Binary (IEC)
0.000909

1,099,511,627,776 Bytes (2⁴⁰)

Petabyte (PB)Decimal (SI)
0.000001

10¹⁵ Bytes

Pebibyte (PiB)Binary (IEC)
8.8818e-7

2⁵⁰ Bytes

💡 The Crucial Difference: Decimal (SI) vs. Binary (IEC)

Decimal SI Standard (Base 10)

In the International System of Units (SI), prefixes represent powers of 10:

  • 1 KB = 1,000 Bytes (10³)
  • 1 MB = 1,000,000 Bytes (10⁶)
  • 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 Bytes (10⁹)
  • 1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 Bytes (10¹²)

Used by storage drive manufacturers (WD, Seagate, Samsung), network bandwidth (Mbps), and macOS.

Binary IEC Standard (Base 2)

In computer architecture, memory and files are addressed in powers of 2:

  • 1 KiB = 1,024 Bytes (2¹⁰)
  • 1 MiB = 1,048,576 Bytes (2²⁰)
  • 1 GiB = 1,073,741,824 Bytes (2³⁰)
  • 1 TiB = 1,099,511,627,776 Bytes (2⁴⁰)

Used by Microsoft Windows, RAM hardware, CPU caches, and Linux kernel utilities.

Specific Converters:GB to MBMB to GBTB to GBGB to GiBTB to TiBMbps to MB/s

How It Works

  • Normalizes value to raw bytes and converts across decimal and binary bases.
Formula & Technical Standard
1 GiB = 1024^3 bytes. 1 GB = 1000^3 bytes. Discrepancy = ~7.37%.

Practical Example

Commercial 1 TB Drive
Input: 1 TB (Decimal)
Output: 931.32 GiB (Binary space reported in Windows)
Explains why a 1TB drive appears as ~931 GB in Windows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my 1TB drive show 931 GB in Windows?

Drive manufacturers use decimal units (10^12 bytes). Windows calculates capacity in binary units (1024^3) but labels it as GB.

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