Bytes (B) to Kilobytes (kB) Conversion

Bytes

The byte is a unit of digital information equal to exactly 8 bits, capable of representing 256 distinct values (2⁸). The 8-bit grouping became standard in the 1960s because it was sufficient to encode the 128-character ASCII set with one bit to spare for error detection. The byte is the standard unit for measuring file sizes, memory capacity, and storage media. In networking, data transfer rates are expressed in bits per second — divide by 8 to convert to bytes per second.

Kilobytes

The kilobyte (kB) is a unit of digital information equal to 1,000 bytes in the SI decimal system. In the binary convention historically used by operating systems, 1,024 bytes was called a kilobyte — now formally named a kibibyte (KiB). Hard drive manufacturers use the decimal definition, while operating systems historically used binary values, making a "500 GB" drive appear as roughly 465 GB in Windows. Plain-text documents, small images, and configuration files are measured at the kilobyte scale.

Convert Bytes (B) to other units of Data