Gigabyte (GB)

Definition

One billion bytes (10⁹ B) in the decimal convention.

History

The gigabyte uses the metric giga prefix for a billion bytes. Drive makers label capacity in decimal gigabytes, while operating systems often report the binary gibibyte, which is why sizes seem to disagree.

Where it is used

Gigabytes measure phone storage, memory and mobile data plans.

Typical uses include phone storage, mobile data plans.

Conversion pages

These pages convert gigabyte to or from another unit in digital storage.

• Megabyte to gigabyte
• Gigabyte to terabyte

Other Digital storage units

• Byte (B)
• Bit (bit)
• Kilobyte (kB)
• Megabyte (MB)
• Terabyte (TB)
• Gibibyte (GiB)
• Mebibyte (MiB)
• Tebibyte (TiB)

Sources

• IEC 80000-13 IEC 80000-13 (quantities and units — information science); NIST on binary prefixes · Dataset reviewed Nov 11, 2026