Convert Megabyte (10^6 bytes) (MB (10^6)) to Kilobyte (10^3 bytes) (kB (10^3)) instantly.
About these units
Megabyte (10^6 bytes) (MB (10^6))
A decimal megabyte equals 1,000,000 bytes, used widely for describing hard disk storage, file sizes, and digital media capacity. Manufacturers favor decimal prefixes because they produce cleaner, larger-sounding numbers compared to binary equivalents. For example, a "500 MB" device would be smaller in binary units. Consumers and engineers must interpret megabytes within context, distinguishing whether a manufacturer intends binary or decimal. Although decimal megabytes dominate mass-storage descriptions, binary megabytes remain common in system memory and software.
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.