What is gigabyte (GB)?

What is gigabyte (GB)?


Multiples of bytes, gigabytes (GB) serve as a unit of measurement for data storage or transmission speed

The gigabyte (GB) is a common unit of measurement in cell phones, computers, and storage devices. The word is commonly used to measure the size of a hard drive, the amount of RAM memory or for example the data transmission speed of a router (Gbps).



Multiples of byte, one of the smallest memory units used in the computing industry, GB makes it easier to understand technical information about devices. After all, it’s much easier to talk than to HD has 500 GB compared to quoting a salad of numbers involving powers and counts of more than 10 digits.

GB, TB and KB

Gigabyte usually appears together with other acronyms from the computing world, such as terabyte (TB), megabytes (MB) or kilobytes (KB). They all follow a standard known as an octet, adopted by technology and consider multiples of 8 bits, the representation of the smallest unit in the computing universe. In this standard, 1 GB equals 1,024 MB or 1,048,576 KB.




Gigabyte (GB) is a multiple of bytes that makes it easier to calculate and measure the available space on an SSD for a PC, for example (Image: Disclosure/Kingston)

The format can also be called standard binary, which follows base 2 and ends up generating broken numbers. A 500GB HDD connected to a Windows PC can boast a storage capacity of 465GB; That doesn’t mean it’s missing spacesince that’s just how data storage is calculated.

Unit Value in bytes Value in bits
Byte 1 8
Kilobytes (KB) 1,024 8,192
Megabytes (MB) 1,048,576 8,388,608
Gigabytes (GB) 1,073,741,824 8,589,934,592
Terabytes (TB) 1,099,511,627,776 8.796.093.022.208
Petabytes (PB) 1,125,899,906,842,624 9.007.199.254.740.992

In other systems, this account is simpler. When 100GB memory cards are connected to a PC Applefor example, it will display the exact amount of data, as the calculation of operating system it is done directly.

What is the difference between GB and Gbps?

Finally, when we talk about network devices, we have the acronym Gbps, which is used to measure the data transfer speed of a device. Note the lowercase B, since we’re talking about gigabits per second here, not gigabytes, as is the case with storage devices.



It is important not to confuse gigabytes (GB) with Gbps, measured in gigabits per second used, for example, to indicate the transfer speed on a router (Image: Alesmunt/Canva)

Once again a discussion involving the octets comes into play. A router or modem that supports speeds up to 1.8 Gbps, for example, can send a maximum of 225 megabytes per second, if the speed provided by the Internet provider exceed this total, it is better to try to more powerful device.

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Source: Terra

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