The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) uses binary (base-2), meaning steps of 1,024 () – KiB, MiB, GiB, etc. Meanwhile, the International System of Units (SI) uses decimal (base-10), meaning steps of 1,000 () – KB, MB, GB, etc.
| IEC Unit | Formula | Exact Bytes | SI Unit | Formula | Exact Bytes | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KiB (Kibibyte) | 1,024 | kB (Kilobyte) | 1,000 | 2.40% | ||
| MiB (Mebibyte) | 1,048,576 | MB (Megabyte) | 1,000,000 | 4.86% | ||
| GiB (Gibibyte) | 1,073,741,824 | GB (Gigabyte) | 1,000,000,000 | 7.37% | ||
| TiB (Tebibyte) | 1,099,511,627,776 | TB (Terabyte) | 1,000,000,000,000 | 9.95% | ||
| PiB (Pebibyte) | 1,125,899,906,842,624 | PB (Petabyte) | 1,000,000,000,000,000 | 12.59% | ||
| EiB (Exbibyte) | 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 | EB (Exabyte) | 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 | 15.29% | ||
| ZiB (Zebibyte) | 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 | ZB (Zettabyte) | 1000 Hexillion | 18.06% | ||
| YiB (Yobibyte) | 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 | YB (Yottabyte) | 1 Septillion | 20.89% | ||
| RiB (Ronnibyte) | 1,237,940,039,285,380,274,899,124,224 | RB (Ronnabyte) | 1 Octillion | 23.79% | ||
| QiB (Quebibyte) | 1,267,650,600,228,229,401,496,703,205,376 | QB (Quettabyte) | 1 Nonillion | 26.77% |