Megabyte (MB)

Definition

One million bytes (10⁶ B) in the decimal convention.

History

The megabyte applies the metric mega prefix for a million, and like the kilobyte was historically used for both a million and 1048576 bytes. The decimal million-byte value is now the standard for storage.

Where it is used

Megabytes measure photos, songs and small downloads, and mobile data is often counted in megabytes.

Typical uses include photos and songs, data caps.

Conversion pages

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

• Megabyte to gigabyte
• Kilobyte to megabyte

Other Digital storage units

• Byte (B)
• Bit (bit)
• Kilobyte (kB)
• Gigabyte (GB)
• 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