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Select a measurement and convert between different units
Single conversion
To convert from Gigabit (Gb) to Gibibyte (GiB), use the following formula:
With is the ratio between the base units Kibibyte (KiB) and Bit (bit).
Let's convert 5 Gigabit (Gb) to Gibibyte (GiB).
Using the formula:
Therefore, 5 Gigabit (Gb) is equal to Gibibyte (GiB).
Here are some quick reference conversions from Gigabit (Gb) to Gibibyte (GiB):
| Gigabits | Gibibytes |
|---|---|
| 0.000001 Gb | GiB |
| 0.001 Gb | GiB |
| 0.1 Gb | GiB |
| 1 Gb | GiB |
| 2 Gb | GiB |
| 3 Gb | GiB |
| 4 Gb | GiB |
| 5 Gb | GiB |
| 6 Gb | GiB |
| 7 Gb | GiB |
| 8 Gb | GiB |
| 9 Gb | GiB |
| 10 Gb | GiB |
| 20 Gb | GiB |
| 30 Gb | GiB |
| 40 Gb | GiB |
| 50 Gb | GiB |
| 100 Gb | GiB |
| 1000 Gb | GiB |
| 10000 Gb | GiB |
For all Digital converters, choose units using the From/To dropdowns above.
A Gigabit (Gb) is a unit of digital information equal to one billion bits (109 bits).
It's a key measurement used to describe the speed of data transfer, most commonly your internet connection speed.
It's easy to mix up a Gigabit (Gb) and a Gigabyte (GB), but they measure two very different things: speed vs. size.
The most important thing to remember is this simple conversion:
This is why a fast 1 Gbps internet connection doesn't download a 1 GB file in one second.
Since a Gigabyte is eight times larger than a Gigabit, it will take about eight seconds to complete the download.
What does a fast internet connection of 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) mean for your daily use?
It provides the bandwidth needed to power a fully connected home or business, allowing you to:
A gigabit connection is the gold standard for reliable, high-speed internet for modern work, entertainment, and communication.
The prefix "Giga-" comes from the Greek word for "giant," and it represents a massive amount of data.
A single Gigabit is made up of one billion individual bits (the most minor units of digital data, represented by a 1 or a 0).
To put that in perspective, one Gigabit of information is enough to store the text of roughly 1,000 novels.
When you hear about Gigabit speeds, you're talking about the power to move that entire library of information every single second.
A gibibyte (GiB) is a unit of measurement for digital data.
While it sounds complex, understanding it is the key to solving a common tech mystery: why the storage space on your new device or hard drive often looks smaller than what was advertised on the box.
Have you ever purchased a 500 gigabyte (GB) hard drive, only to find that your computer reports it as having only 465 GB of storage capacity?
You haven't been short-changed. The difference comes down to two different ways of counting:
Gigabyte (GB): This is the unit manufacturers use for marketing. It's a simple, round number based on the decimal (base-10) system.
Gibibyte (GiB): This is the unit your computer's operating system (like Windows or macOS) often uses for measurement. It is based on the binary (base-2) system, which is the native language of computers.
This means a gibibyte is about 7.4% larger than a gigabyte.
So, your 500 GB hard drive has exactly 500,000,000,000 bytes, but when your computer measures those bytes using the binary system, it calculates it as approximately 465 GiB.
The amount of storage is the same—only the unit of measurement has changed.
To clear up this exact confusion, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) officially introduced the term "gibibyte" in 1998.
It was created along with other binary-based prefixes (like kibi-, mebi-, and tebi-) to create a clear standard and separate the binary measurements used in computing from the decimal measurements used in marketing and general communication.
Knowing where to expect each term can help you avoid confusion:
You will see Gigabytes (GB) used most often in marketing and sales, such as on the packaging for hard drives, SSDs, smartphones, and when describing mobile data plans.
You will encounter Gibibytes (GiB) inside software environments. Operating systems, file size information, and memory (RAM) specifications use GiB to give a more precise measurement that aligns with the computer's binary architecture.
In short, the next time you see a difference in your storage numbers, you'll know it's not a mistake—it's just the language of computers at work