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Convert gibibytes to kilobytes

1 GiB = 1073740 KB

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Questions

How many kilobytes are in a gibibyte?

One gibibyte is 1073741.82 kilobytes. To convert any amount, multiply by 1073741.82. Going the other way, one kilobyte is 9.31322575e-7 gibibytes.

What is the formula to convert GiB to KB?

Multiply the gibibyte figure by 1073741.82. So KB = GiB × 1073741.82. For a quick mental estimate, multiplying by about 1073742 gets you within a percent or so, which is close enough for most everyday purposes.

What does a gibibyte actually look like?

One gibibyte is what your OS calls a 'GB' of memory. A gibibyte is exactly 1,024³ bytes, about 7.4% more than a gigabyte. RAM is always sold in binary units even when storage is not.

And what is a kilobyte?

One kilobyte is a short email. A kilobyte is 1,000 bytes under the SI definition used by storage manufacturers and networking. Windows still labels 1,024 bytes as KB, which is the root of the 'missing space' on a new drive.

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 gib to kb

How to convert gibibytes to kilobytes

Multiply by 1073741.82. One gibibyte is 1073741.82 kilobytes, and one kilobyte is 9.31322575e-7 gibibytes.

KB = GiB × 1073741.82

Worked example

500 GiB = 536870900 KB. For a sense of scale, one gibibyte is what your OS calls a 'GB' of memory, and one kilobyte is a short email.

About the gibibyte

A gibibyte is exactly 1,024³ bytes, about 7.4% more than a gigabyte. RAM is always sold in binary units even when storage is not.

About the kilobyte

A kilobyte is 1,000 bytes under the SI definition used by storage manufacturers and networking. Windows still labels 1,024 bytes as KB, which is the root of the 'missing space' on a new drive.

Quick reference

gibibyteskilobytes
1 GiB1073740 KB
2 GiB2147480 KB
5 GiB5368710 KB
10 GiB10737400 KB
25 GiB26843500 KB
50 GiB53687100 KB
100 GiB107374000 KB
1000 GiB1073740000 KB

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 kilobytes back to gibibytes, or pick any other pair with the full unit converter. Related: GiB to MB, GiB to GB, GiB to TB.