What is the difference between MB and MiB?

A megabyte (MB) is 1,000,000 bytes (decimal, powers of 1000), while a mebibyte (MiB) is 1,048,576 bytes (binary, powers of 1024). This is why a "500 GB" drive shows up as roughly 465 GiB in your operating system.

How many bits are in a byte?

One byte equals 8 bits. Network speeds are usually quoted in bits per second (Mbps), while file sizes use bytes (MB) — divide Mbps by 8 to estimate MB/s.

Data Size Converter

Convert digital storage and data sizes between bits, bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, and their binary (IEC) counterparts KiB, MiB, GiB, and TiB. The tool makes the often-confusing distinction explicit: decimal units use factors of 1000 (as drive manufacturers do), while binary units use factors of 1024 (as operating systems often do).

Converters

Value

From

1 Bits = 0.125 Bytes

1 Bits (bit) converted to all units
Unit	Value
Bits (bit)	1
Bytes (B)	0.125
Kilobytes (kB)	0.000125
Megabytes (MB)	0.000000125
Gigabytes (GB)	0.000000000125
Terabytes (TB)	0.000000000000125
Kibibytes (KiB)	0.0001220703125
Mebibytes (MiB)	0.0000001192092896
Gibibytes (GiB)	0.0000000001164153218
Tebibytes (TiB)	0.0000000000001136868377

Private by default

This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your data is never uploaded to a server.

How it works

Why 1000 and 1024 both get called “kilo”

1 MB = 1000² = 1,000,000 bytes · 1 MiB = 1024² = 1,048,576 bytes

Decimal units (kB, MB, GB, TB) step by 1000 and are what the SI standard, drive manufacturers, and network operators use. Binary units (KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB) step by 1024 and are what memory sizes and many operating systems actually mean. This converter keeps the two families apart instead of guessing which one you had in mind.

The gap compounds with every step: 2.4% between kB and KiB, 4.9% at MB/MiB, 7.4% at GB/GiB, and 10.0% at TB/TiB.
Windows reports binary values under decimal names, so a 500 GB drive shows as “465 GB” when it is really 465 GiB. macOS reports decimal units and shows the full 500 GB.
1 byte = 8 bits. Link speeds are quoted in bits per second and file sizes in bytes, so divide Mbps by 8 to get MB/s.
The lowercase k in kB is the SI prefix for 1000; KiB takes a capital K because the binary prefixes are a separate IEC standard.

For reference

Decimal and binary units side by side

Decimal unit	Bytes	Binary unit	Bytes
1 kB	1,000	1 KiB	1,024
1 MB	1,000,000	1 MiB	1,048,576
1 GB	1,000,000,000	1 GiB	1,073,741,824
1 TB	1,000,000,000,000	1 TiB	1,099,511,627,776

A 500 GB drive holds 500,000,000,000 bytes, which is 465.7 GiB — the same storage, a different unit.

How to use

4 clear steps.

Enter the data size value.
Select the source unit (e.g. MB).
Select the target unit (e.g. GiB) and read the result.
Compare decimal (KB, MB) and binary (KiB, MiB) units in the full table.

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between MB and MiB?: A megabyte (MB) is 1,000,000 bytes (decimal, powers of 1000), while a mebibyte (MiB) is 1,048,576 bytes (binary, powers of 1024). This is why a "500 GB" drive shows up as roughly 465 GiB in your operating system.
How many bits are in a byte?: One byte equals 8 bits. Network speeds are usually quoted in bits per second (Mbps), while file sizes use bytes (MB) — divide Mbps by 8 to estimate MB/s.