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Convert gigabytes to terabytes

1 GB = 0.001 TB

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Questions

How many terabytes are in a gigabyte?

One gigabyte is 0.001 terabytes. To convert any amount, multiply by 0.001. Going the other way, one terabyte is 1000 gigabytes.

What is the formula to convert GB to TB?

Multiply the gigabyte figure by 0.001. So TB = GB × 0.001. For a quick mental estimate, dividing by about 1000 gets you close enough for most everyday purposes.

What does a gigabyte actually look like?

One gigabyte is about two hours of HD video. A gigabyte is one billion bytes. A drive sold as 1 TB holds 1,000 GB decimal, which your operating system may display as 931 GiB — nothing is missing, the units differ.

And what is a terabyte?

One terabyte is a large photo and video library. A terabyte is a trillion bytes. Consumer drives are sold in decimal terabytes, which is why a '2 TB' drive shows as roughly 1.82 TiB once formatted.

Why does my 1 TB drive show as only 931 GB?

Because two different definitions are in play. Storage manufacturers use decimal units — 1 TB means exactly one trillion bytes. Windows and many other systems display binary units but label them with decimal names, so they show that same drive as 931 "GB" when they mean 931 gibibytes. Nothing is missing and nothing is faulty; the drive holds exactly what it says, measured differently. The IEC standardised kibi, mebi and gibi in 1998 specifically to end this, but adoption has been patchy.

Is this conversion exact?

Yes — both decimal and binary prefixes are exactly defined powers, so every figure here is exact rather than approximate. The results are shown to seven significant figures; the underlying arithmetic uses full double precision.

About gb to tb

How to convert gigabytes to terabytes

Multiply by 0.001. One gigabyte is 0.001 terabytes, and one terabyte is 1000 gigabytes.

TB = GB × 0.001

Worked example

500 GB = 0.5 TB. For a sense of scale, one gigabyte is about two hours of HD video, and one terabyte is a large photo and video library.

About the gigabyte

A gigabyte is one billion bytes. A drive sold as 1 TB holds 1,000 GB decimal, which your operating system may display as 931 GiB — nothing is missing, the units differ.

About the terabyte

A terabyte is a trillion bytes. Consumer drives are sold in decimal terabytes, which is why a '2 TB' drive shows as roughly 1.82 TiB once formatted.

Quick reference

gigabytesterabytes
1 GB0.001 TB
2 GB0.002 TB
5 GB0.005 TB
10 GB0.01 TB
25 GB0.025 TB
50 GB0.05 TB
100 GB0.1 TB
1000 GB1 TB

Getting it right

The decimal and binary prefixes are the trap: a kilobyte is 1,000 bytes but a kibibyte is 1,024, and the gap compounds at every step until a terabyte and a tebibyte differ by about 10%. Storage manufacturers use decimal, operating systems often display binary, and neither is wrong — they are simply different units.

Other data size conversions

Convert terabytes back to gigabytes, or pick any other pair with the full unit converter. Related: GB to KB, GB to MB, GB to MiB.