ByteBridge

Data Size Converter

Convert between every common data size unit — with a toggle between decimal (SI) and binary (IEC) sizes.

From

What you entered

Amount: 1,500 MBSystem: decimal

1
Convert to bytes (base 1000)
1500 × 1,000,000= 1500000000 B
2
Convert bytes to the target unit
1500000000 ÷ 1,000,000,000= 1.5

Result

GB: 1.5

1,500 MB equals 1.5 GB in the decimal (base 1000) system.

Data sizes in decimal and binary units

Decimal units step by 1,000 and binary units by 1,024. The two systems diverge further at every step.

Input	System	Output
1 GB	Decimal	1000 MB
1 GiB	Binary	1024 MiB
1024 MiB	Binary	1 GiB
1 TB	Decimal	1000 GB
500 GB	Decimal	0.5 TB

This is the discrepancy behind every complaint about a hard drive being smaller than advertised. Manufacturers sell in decimal, so a 1 TB drive holds 1,000,000,000,000 bytes; operating systems that report in binary divide by 1,024 three times and show about 931 GiB, often mislabelled GB. Nothing is missing - the two systems just count differently, and the gap widens with size: about 2.4% at kilobytes, 7.4% at gigabytes and 10% at terabytes. The GiB, MiB and KiB units exist specifically to remove the ambiguity.

Why your disk shows less space

Drive makers advertise GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes. Operating systems often use GiB (1,073,741,824 bytes). The numbers disagree by ~7% — that's where the 'missing' space goes.

Frequently asked questions

I bought a 1 TB drive but my computer shows 931 GB — where did the rest go?

The drive maker counts 1 TB as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes (decimal/SI). Your OS displays in gibibytes (GiB), where 1 GiB = 1,073,741,824 bytes. Dividing: 1,000,000,000,000 / 1,073,741,824 ≈ 931 GiB. No storage is missing — it's a labeling mismatch.

What's the difference between MB and MiB?

MB (megabyte, decimal) = 1,000,000 bytes. MiB (mebibyte, binary) = 1,048,576 bytes. The difference is about 4.9%. Network speeds and storage vendors use decimal (MB); RAM and many operating systems use binary (MiB). Toggle between them above to see exact conversions.

How many songs/photos/videos can I fit in 64 GB?

Rough estimates: a 4-minute MP3 ≈ 4 MB (so ~16,000 songs), an iPhone photo ≈ 3 MB (~21,000 photos), a minute of 1080p video ≈ 150 MB (~7 hours of video). These vary widely with quality settings and compression.