The 411 - GB vs GiB and MB vs MiB

GB and MB are units of measurement for digital storage capacity, while GiB and MiB are units of measurement for digital information. The main difference between GB and GiB and MB and MiB is that GB and MB use a decimal system, where 1 GB is equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes and 1 MB is equal to 1,000,000 bytes, while GiB and MiB use a binary system, where 1 GiB is equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes and 1 MiB is equal to 1,048,576 bytes.

This means that when you see a file size listed as, for example, 1 GB, it actually contains slightly less data than a file listed as 1 GiB. The same is true for MB and MiB. This difference can be particularly important when dealing with large files, as the discrepancy between the decimal and binary systems can lead to confusion and errors in calculations.

In summary, GB and MB are based on a decimal system and GiB and MiB are based on a binary system. GB and MB are used to measure storage capacity, while GiB and MiB are used to measure information.

Source: Some or all of the content was generated using an AI language model