Convert Kilobit (kb) to Kilobyte (10^3 bytes) (kB (10^3)) instantly.
About these units
Kilobit (kb)
A kilobit represents 1,000 bits (decimal), commonly used in telecommunications and networking. Unlike computer storage, networking units generally favor decimal prefixes, making kilobits distinct from kibibits (1024-bit units). Kilobits are often used to express low-bandwidth data rates—such as early dial-up Internet speeds (e.g., 56 kbps), small sensor networks, or radio telemetry. Though kilobits appear small today, many communication systems still operate efficiently at kilobit speeds, especially low-power IoT devices designed for long battery life and minimal bandwidth usage.
Kilobyte (10^3 bytes) (kB (10^3))
A decimal kilobyte equals 1,000 bytes, reflecting the SI prefix kilo = 10³. Storage device manufacturers standardize on this definition because it scales cleanly and simplifies marketing and specification. This creates a mismatch with binary kilobytes (1,024 bytes) historically used in RAM and file systems. As storage capacities grew, this discrepancy became increasingly noticeable, leading standards bodies to promote explicit binary prefixes (KiB, MiB) for clarity. Despite these efforts, decimal kilobytes remain dominant in contexts such as hard drives, flash memory packaging, and communication standards.