Table of Contents
Welcome to kB to GB, you have come to the right site.
In order to convert these units of digital information, multiples of the base unit byte (B), it is important to understand that the term “kilobyte” (kB) is loaded with ambiguity.
If you want to obtain kilobytes in gigabytes (GB), then it really matters if a kB stands for 1000 or 1024 bytes.
Keep reading to learn everything about kilobytes to gigabytes, and make sure to check out our converter further below. 🙂
Calculator
Kilobytes to Gigabytes
The International Electrotechnical Commission IEC defines one kB as 1,000 (103) bytes, and this standard established in the year 1998 has been widely embraced internationally such as by the SI (International System of Units), the present form of the metric system so to speak.
In a related move, the gigabyte has been defined as 1,000,000,000 (109) bytes.
Throughout this site we stick with the IEC/SI. However, some organizations and vendors disagree, as explained below.
The metric prefix “kilo” denotes one thousand (103), whereas the metric prefix “giga” stands for one billion (109).
It follows that kilobytes to gigabytes is always a million times less, because a kilobyte is 1/1000000 of a gigabyte.
In other words, 1,000,000 kB equals 1 GB.
Unfortunately, the term kilobyte is extensively used with a different meaning.
Among others, Microsoft (Windows operating systems) postulates that one kB equals 1024 bytes.
The reason behind is that bytes are computed in powers of 2, and should be expressed with the same base.
With this logic, one megabyte = 10242 B and one gigabyte = 10243 B, etc.
Kibibytes to Gibibytes
However, according to IEC, 1024 bytes equals one kibibyte (KiB), and, along the same lines, 10243 B, that is 1,073,741,824 bytes make up one gibibyte (GiB) as proposed by IEC in 1998 as well.
In between the binary multiples of bytes kibibyte and gibibyte is the mebibyte: 10242 B.
Hard storage manufacturers tend to measure their products, e.g. hard disk drives, in multiples of 1,000,000,000 or in multiples of 1,000,000,000,000 bytes, that is in gigabytes or in terabytes.
Volatile storage, most notably Random Access Memory, is often labeled in “GB” as well, but in this case one GB means 1,073,741,824 = 230= 10243 bytes, that is gibibyte.
This demonstrates that the adoption of the binary prefixed units has been slow.
Make sure to remember Microsoft’s point of view that one GB is equal to 1,073,741,824 B.
In the image below taken on a Windows 7 PC with a 500 gigabytes disk (500,105,249,280 B) the msinfo32 command displays the capacity as 465.76 GB, whereas in fact is 465.76 GiB.
KB in GB
In base 10 definition one kB is 103 B and one GB = 109 B.
In base 1000, a kB is 10001 B, and a GB is 10003 B.
One gigabyte = 1,000,000 kilobytes.
KiB in GiB
In base 2 definition, one KiB is 220 B and one GiB = 230 B.
In base 1024, a KiB is 10241 B, and a GiB is 10243 B.
One gibibyte = 1,048,576 kibibytes.
To complicate things even further, there used to be a third means to express digital storage capacity, known as mixed definition.
Floppy disks, now largely extinct, were measured that way.
To learn all about it, visit megabytes to gigabytes and check the end of the second paragraph.
How many GB in a KB?
Have you been looking for how many GB in a kB?
Assumed you have read the information up to this line, then you are aware that you have to take into consideration whether your capacity device is volatile or non-volatile, and to account for vendor exceptions as well.
As previously stated, we stick with the official definitions.
When making use of our tool in the next paragraph, you know which is which, right?
How to Convert kB to GB?
For the kilobyte to gigabyte conversion you can either use the formula [GB] = [kB] / 1000000, or utilize our kB GB calculator right below; the latter approach is recommended.
About our kB to GB Converter
In order to conduct a conversion from kB to GB insert your value in kilobytes.
Our app tool at the top of this page then does the math automatically without the need to press a button.
This kB to GB calculator accepts kilobytes, gigabytes, kibytes and gibibytes as input, and automatically converts the units into all other multiples of byte.
Frequently searched transformations on this website include, for example:
In the next part of this article we provide you with a round-up of the units of data and storage.
KiB to GiB
You already know that kibibytes to gibibytes is not the same as kilobytes to gigabytes.
We recommend using our converter to change KiB to GiB.
Below you can find an overview of the common units of digital information:
1 bit is the fundamental digital unit, used to represent 2 states of information like 1 or 0, yes or no and on / off.
Bit is short for binary digit, the unit symbol is lowercase b.
1 byte usually consists of 8 bits.
One byte can represent 256 (0 through 255) states of information including letters and numbers for example.
The unit symbol is uppercase B.
Decimal Multiples of Bytes:
- 1 kB (kilobyte) = 10001 B = 103 bytes
- 1 MB (megabyte) = 10002 B = 106 bytes
- 1 GB (gigabyte) = 10003 B = 109 bytes
- 1 TB (terabyte) = 10004 B = 1012 bytes
- 1 PB (petabyte) = 10005 B = 1015 bytes
Binary Multiples of Bytes:
- 1 KiB (kibibyte) = 10241 B = 210 bytes
- 1 MiB (mebibyte) = 10242 B = 220 bytes
- 1 GiB (gibibyte) = 10243 B = 230 bytes
- 1 TiB (tebibyte) = 10244 B = 240 bytes
- 1 PiB (pebibyte) = 10245 B = 250 bytes
As you can see, the symbols for the binary multiples consistently contain three letters, whereas their decimal counterparts are always made up of two characters.
Ahead is the summary of our content.
Bottom Line
In this concluding part of our article, we would like to bring to your attention that you can always use the search form in menu and the sidebar to locate frequent conversions.
Assumed x stands for your particular amount of data or storage, insert, for example, x KiB in GiB or x KB in GB.
The result page has links to all relevant posts and articles.
This image wraps our content up:
Remember: kibibytes (KiB) in gibibytes (GiB) is not the same as kilobytes (kB) in gigabytes (GB)!
We appreciate questions and comments which can be left in the designated form at the bottom.
Alternatively, send us an email and we strive to respond as soon as possible as well.
If our information has been useful, then hit the share buttons and make sure to bookmark us.
And if time permits, check out our other sites in the “recommended” section in the sidebar.
Thanks for visiting KB to GB.
More information:
– Article written by Mark, last updated on December 22nd, 2023