Convert Kilobyte (kB) to Gigabyte (10^9 bytes) (GB (10^9)) instantly.
About these units
Kilobyte (kB)
A kilobyte traditionally represents 1,024 bytes (2¹⁰), reflecting binary-based memory design. Historically, operating systems, RAM modules, and floppy disks all used the binary kilobyte because memory addressing naturally aligned with powers of two. Kilobytes were once considered large: early computer programs and operating systems were measured in just a few kB. The first text-based adventure games fit entirely within 32 kB. Although kilobytes seem tiny today, they remain important for low-level embedded systems, boot loaders, configuration memory, and microcontrollers. The kilobyte is a reminder of computing's early constraints and the precision of binary address spaces.
Gigabyte (10^9 bytes) (GB (10^9))
A decimal gigabyte is 1,000,000,000 bytes and is the standard unit for hard drive and SSD capacities. As storage technology scaled into the hundreds of gigabytes and then terabytes, the decimal definition became more practical, allowing consistent scaling across consumer and enterprise devices. However, operating systems often report capacities using binary units, causing user confusion (e.g., a "500 GB" drive showing only ~465 "GB"). This mismatch persists despite standardization efforts.