[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone” _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#FFFFFF” custom_margin=”||||false|false” custom_padding=”1.5em|20%|1.5em|20%|true|true” custom_padding_tablet=”|0%||0%|true|true” custom_padding_phone=”|0%||0%|true|true” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”7b1bf5ad-cc2a-4448-981c-4963d88bd6e8″ custom_margin=”||||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|true” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”18px” text_line_height=”1.8em” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
GB vs GiB<\/strong>\u2014why the lowercase \u2018i\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\n At first what may seem like a typo is actually a separate unit of measurement with a long, complicated history. Both GB and GiB display storage capacity on a computer but one will display <\/span>less<\/span><\/i> available memory than the other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s say you just picked up a one TB hard drive. You\u2019d probably expect it to have 1,000 gigabytes (GBs) of storage, since tera is a unit of measurement in the metric system. But it won\u2019t. Instead, it\u2019ll have around 931 GBs of storage.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This is confusing for most people\u2014so much so that it has even been the focus of class-action <\/span>lawsuits against hard drive makers<\/a>\u00a0in the past. The <\/span>suits<\/span> ended in settlements, but weren\u2019t admissions of misconduct by the companies, for reasons we\u2019ll get into below.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Indeed, all this uncertainty isn\u2019t due to some malevolence on the part of hardware makers. Rather, it\u2019s the result of a chain of seemingly innocuous decisions made several decades ago by those in the technology industry, leading to two very similar but also very different measurements: GB vs GiB\u2014or gigabytes vs gibibytes.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”2514b1ee-af07-4bc3-a96b-c9aaa32f4a18″ text_font_size=”24px” width=”100%” width_tablet=”100%” width_phone=”100%” width_last_edited=”on|tablet” max_width=”100%” custom_margin=”|-54px|0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px|||0px|false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”2514b1ee-af07-4bc3-a96b-c9aaa32f4a18″ text_font_size=”18px” text_line_height=”1.8em” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_cta title=”Need to Transfer Large Files?” button_url=”https:\/\/app.massive.io\/en\/signup” button_text=”Create Free Account” module_class=”starttrial” _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”default” header_level=”h5″ header_font=”||||||||” header_font_size=”27px” header_line_height=”1.3em” background_color=”#202332″ background_color_gradient_start=”#3d72e7″ background_color_gradient_end=”#202332″ background_color_gradient_direction=”206deg” custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#FFFFFF” button_bg_use_color_gradient=”on” button_bg_color_gradient_start=”#3d72e7″ button_bg_color_gradient_end=”#53a0fe” button_bg_color_gradient_direction=”293deg” button_border_width=”0px” button_border_radius=”50px” button_use_icon=”off” button_custom_padding=”10px|42px|10px|42px|true|true” custom_margin=”||20px||false|false” link_option_url=”https:\/\/app.massive.io\/en\/signup” border_width_top=”10px” border_color_top=”#3d72e7″ border_color_left=”#3d72e7″ box_shadow_style=”preset2″ box_shadow_horizontal=”-13px” box_shadow_style_button=”preset1″ locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}” button_border_width__hover_enabled=”on|hover” button_custom_padding__hover_enabled=”on|hover” button_custom_padding__hover=”|2em|||false|false” button_border_width__hover=”0px”]<\/p>\n Create a free MASV account to get started.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_cta][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone” _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#FFFFFF” custom_margin=”||||false|false” custom_padding=”1.5em|20%|1.5em|20%|true|true” custom_padding_tablet=”|0%||0%|true|true” custom_padding_phone=”|0%||0%|true|true” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”7b1bf5ad-cc2a-4448-981c-4963d88bd6e8″ custom_margin=”||-5%||false|false” custom_margin_tablet=”||-5%||false|false” custom_margin_phone=”||-10%||false|false” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|tablet” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|true” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text module_id=”gb-vs-gib-so-what-is-the-difference” _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”2514b1ee-af07-4bc3-a96b-c9aaa32f4a18″ text_font_size=”18px” text_line_height=”1.8em” header_3_font_size=”26px” custom_margin=”||||false|false” custom_margin_tablet=”||12px||false|false” custom_margin_last_edited=”off|desktop” custom_padding=”||||false|false” custom_padding_tablet=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding_phone=”0px||||false|false” custom_padding_last_edited=”off|desktop” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n At its most basic level, one GB is defined as 1000\u00b3 (1,000,000,000) bytes and one GiB as 1024\u00b3 (1,073,741,824) bytes. That means one GB equals 0.93 GiB.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Seems straightforward, right? It\u2019s not.<\/span><\/p>\n Thirty years ago GiBs as a measurement didn\u2019t even exist. GBs, at that time, represented both units of measurement depending on the context. This confusion has persisted to the present day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This strange state of ambiguity is <\/span>rooted in the fact<\/span> that while computer data is generally measured in binary code, the prefixes used to measure that data (kilo, mega, tera, peta, etc.) derive from the metric system. A metric \u201ckilo\u201d equals 1,000, but a binary \u201ckilo\u201d equals 1,024.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Several decades ago, when the high-end of memory capacity was measured in kilobytes (kB), this difference seemed negligible. As the International Electrotechnical Commission (<\/a><\/span>IEC<\/span><\/a>)<\/a> explains:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs a matter of convenience, (engineers) began referring to 1,024 bytes as a kilobyte. It was, after all, only a 2.4% difference, and all the professionals generally knew what they were talking about among themselves.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/massive.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GBvsGiB.png” alt=”GB vs GiB” title_text=”GBvsGiB” url=”https:\/\/app.massive.io\/en\/signup” module_class=”starttrial” _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”18px” text_line_height=”1.8em” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Now, however, we have access to terabytes of data storage and work with files many times larger than those in the 1980s could even imagine. The higher the amount of storage, the more the gulf widens: there\u2019s a <\/span>7% size difference between GBs and GiBs<\/a>, for example, compared to the aforementioned 2.4% difference between kB and KiB. And as file sizes increase further, so does this disparity.<\/span><\/p>\n But let\u2019s hang on a minute. If GiBs didn\u2019t even exist a few decades ago, where the heck did they come from?<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone” _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#FFFFFF” custom_margin=”||||false|false” custom_padding=”1.5em|20%|1.5em|20%|true|true” custom_padding_tablet=”|0%||0%|true|true” custom_padding_phone=”|0%||0%|true|true” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”7b1bf5ad-cc2a-4448-981c-4963d88bd6e8″ custom_margin=”||||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|true” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.9.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text module_id=”how-did-gibs-come-to-be” _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”2514b1ee-af07-4bc3-a96b-c9aaa32f4a18″ text_font_size=”18px” text_line_height=”1.8em” header_3_font_size=”26px” custom_margin=”||||false|false” custom_margin_tablet=”||12px||false|false” custom_margin_last_edited=”off|desktop” custom_padding=”||||false|false” custom_padding_tablet=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding_phone=”0px||||false|false” custom_padding_last_edited=”off|desktop” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n In order to alleviate confusion and draw a line in the sand once and for all, the aforementioned IEC developed a new international standard of measurement using non-metric prefixes for the binary measurements. Under this new standard a kB held its metric value (1,000 bytes) while a brand-new unit of measure, the kibibyte, represented the binary version (1,024 bytes).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kibibytes (KiB) were joined by their counterparts, mebibyte (the binary version of megabyte), gibibyte, tebibyte, pebibyte, and so on down the line.<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s a comparison of how some of the measurements set out in 1998 compare to their metric counterparts:<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”18px” text_line_height=”1.8em” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n\n
GB vs GiB: So What is<\/i> the Difference?<\/h2>\n
\n
<\/blockquote>\n
How Did GiBs Come to Be?<\/h2>\n