Really 1 KB (KiloByte) equals 1024 bytes?

binary byte system decimal bit
Samuel Petrosyan picture Samuel Petrosyan · Nov 6, 2013 · Viewed 79.4k times · Source

Until now I believed that 1024 bytes equals 1 KB (kilobyte) but I was reading on the internet about decimal and binary system.

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So, actually 1024 bytes = 1 KB would be the correct way to define or simply there is a general confusion?

Answer

RocketSpock picture RocketSpock · Nov 6, 2013

What you are seeing is a marketing stunt. Since non-technical people don't know the difference between Metric Meg, Gig, etc. against the binary Meg, Gig, etc. marketers for storage will use the Metric calculation, thus 1000 Bytes == 1 KiloByte.

This can cause issues with development or highly technical people so you get the idea of a binary Meg, Gig, etc. which is designated with a bi instead of the standard combination (ex. Mebibyte vs Megabyte, or Gibibyte vs Gigabyte)

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