How many bytes are in a megabyte?

The answer depends on which system you use. In the decimal (SI) system, a megabyte is equal to 1,000,000 bytes. In the binary system, the correct term for a million bytes is "mebibyte" (MiB), and it has a size of 1,048,576 bytes. This tool shows both results at once.

Is a megabyte 1,000 kilobytes or 1,024 kilobytes?

In the decimal system a megabyte is equal to 1,000 kilobytes. The number 1,024 belongs to the binary system. A binary megabyte equals 1,024 binary kilobytes. Confusion often arises from mixing up these two systems.

Why does the displayed capacity of a hard drive show less than stated?

Manufacturers measure capacity in the decimal system, so 1 TB is one trillion bytes. Windows measures the same amount of bytes in the binary system and displays it as about 931 GB. There's no loss of capacity; both systems just use different divisors.

What is the difference between MB and MiB?

A megabyte (MB) in the decimal SI system is equal to 1,000,000 bytes. A binary megabyte (MiB) is a precise binary value of 1,048,576 bytes, or 2 to the power of 20. The IEC defined MiB to resolve ambiguity in the term "megabyte".

What is the difference between megabits and megabytes?

Since a byte is made up of eight bits, one megabyte is equivalent to eight times the size of a megabit. Storage capacity is measured in megabytes (MB) while internet speed is measured in megabits (Mb). A connection speed of 100 Mbps is roughly equal to 12.5 MB per second.

Bytes to MB Calculator

Convert data size

Amount of data

Unit of the value above

Pick the unit of the value you enter. Its value is that unit's size in bytes.

Megabytes (MB, decimal)

Mebibytes (MiB, binary)

MB (decimal) divides by 1,000,000; MiB (binary) divides by 1,048,576. Both are shown so you can use whichever your context expects.

Megabytes (MB)

Bytes (B)
Kilobytes (KB)
Kibibytes (KiB)

Bits (b)
Megabits (Mb)

The same 1000000 bytes is 1 MB in decimal but 0.953674 MiB in binary. Storage makers use decimal; Windows reports binary, which is why a drive looks smaller than the label.

A byte to megabytes calculator is a tool that can convert bytes into megabytes and vice versa. By entering a value and selecting the unit, you can see the result in megabytes as well as all other common data units. It's important to note that there are two different meanings for megabyte, and this calculator will show both results side by side.

How many megabytes are in a byte?

It depends on what definition of megabyte is used. In the decimal system used by the International System of Units (SI), a megabyte is exactly one million bytes, so a byte is one millionth of a megabyte.

1\ \text{B} = \frac{1}{1{,}000{,}000}\ \text{MB} = 0.000001\ \text{MB}

In the binary system actually used in computer memory, a megabyte is 2 to the power of 20 bytes, or 1,048,576 bytes. To avoid confusion, there's an IEC-defined name for this binary unit: mebibyte (MiB).

1\ \text{B} = \frac{1}{1{,}048{,}576}\ \text{MiB} = 0.00000095367432\ \text{MiB}

Two different formulas for conversion

To convert bytes to megabytes, a division is performed. The only thing that matters is by which number the division should be made.

\text{MB (decimal)} = \frac{\text{bytes}}{1{,}000{,}000}

\text{MiB (binary)} = \frac{\text{bytes}}{1{,}048{,}576}

For example, take the number 1,048,576 bytes. When divided by a million, it is 1.048576 megabytes in decimal notation. When divided by 1,048,576, it is exactly 1 mebibyte in binary notation. This means that the same data has two different labels. So sometimes Windows will show files as 1 MB while smartphones and websites using decimal notation may report them as 1.05 MB.

Decimal vs binary system and why hard drive capacities appear smaller

Storage device manufacturers use decimal units to express capacity, with a gigabyte being one billion bytes. However, operating systems such as Windows use binary units but still display the abbreviation GB. So a hard drive that is nominally 1 TB actually contains one trillion bytes and when divided by 1,099,511,627,776, Windows will show approximately 931 GB. No data is lost; it's just different divisors used in the two systems.

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) introduced the binary prefixes kibi, mebi, gibi and tebi in 1998 to avoid confusion. These terms designate precise binary quantities: KiB, MiB, GiB and TiB. So KB is unambiguously 1,000 bytes while KiB is 1,024 bytes. The following table shows the two systems side-by-side.

Decimal unit	Bytes	Binary unit	Bytes
Kilobyte (KB)	1,000	Kibibyte (KiB)	1,024
Megabyte (MB)	1,000,000	Mebibyte (MiB)	1,048,576
Gigabyte (GB)	1,000,000,000	Gibibyte (GiB)	1,073,741,824
Terabyte (TB)	1,000,000,000,000	Tebibyte (TiB)	1,099,511,627,776

Bits and bytes: megabits are not equal to megabytes

A byte is 8 bits. Data storage is measured in bytes (big B), while network and internet speeds are measured in bits (small b). This one little thing makes a difference of eight to one. A connection that's 100 megabits per second can only transfer about 12.5 megabytes per second, because the bit rate has to be divided by eight to get the byte rate. This tool shows both bits and megabits so you can see the difference at a glance.

What is a byte?

A byte is the basic unit of digital storage. A byte consists of eight bits, and can represent 256 different values with those eight bits. The range of values goes from 0 to 255. In early character sets like ASCII, a single character could be stored in one byte, such as the letter "a" or the number 9. This is why file sizes and storage space have been measured in bytes since the beginning of computer time.

Examples of converting bytes to MB:

The following table shows results of converting common byte amounts in both directions. Note that the Binary column contains whole numbers as powers of two, and the Decimal column as powers of ten.

Bytes	MB (decimal)	MiB (binary)
1,000	0.001	0.000954
100,000	0.1	0.095367
1,000,000	1	0.953674
1,048,576	1.048576	1
5,000,000	5	4.768372
10,485,760	10.48576	10

This calculator is for general educational and everyday reference purposes only. The definitions of the data units follow the SI and IEC standards. Always verify which convention a device or supplier follows before making decisions based on numbers.

Frequently asked questions

How many bytes are in a megabyte?: The answer depends on which system you use. In the decimal (SI) system, a megabyte is equal to 1,000,000 bytes. In the binary system, the correct term for a million bytes is "mebibyte" (MiB), and it has a size of 1,048,576 bytes. This tool shows both results at once.
Is a megabyte 1,000 kilobytes or 1,024 kilobytes?: In the decimal system a megabyte is equal to 1,000 kilobytes. The number 1,024 belongs to the binary system. A binary megabyte equals 1,024 binary kilobytes. Confusion often arises from mixing up these two systems.
Why does the displayed capacity of a hard drive show less than stated?: Manufacturers measure capacity in the decimal system, so 1 TB is one trillion bytes. Windows measures the same amount of bytes in the binary system and displays it as about 931 GB. There's no loss of capacity; both systems just use different divisors.
What is the difference between MB and MiB?: A megabyte (MB) in the decimal SI system is equal to 1,000,000 bytes. A binary megabyte (MiB) is a precise binary value of 1,048,576 bytes, or 2 to the power of 20. The IEC defined MiB to resolve ambiguity in the term "megabyte".
What is the difference between megabits and megabytes?: Since a byte is made up of eight bits, one megabyte is equivalent to eight times the size of a megabit. Storage capacity is measured in megabytes (MB) while internet speed is measured in megabits (Mb). A connection speed of 100 Mbps is roughly equal to 12.5 MB per second.

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Disclaimer: This calculator is provided for general informational and educational purposes only. Our calculators are under active development, and results may be inaccurate, incomplete, or unsuitable for your situation. Always verify the figures independently and seek advice from a qualified professional before relying on them. We make no warranties and accept no liability for any loss or decision arising from use of this tool.

References

IEC 80000-13:2008, Quantities and units - Information science and technology
The standard that defines the binary prefixes kibi, mebi, gibi and their symbols.
NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples
U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology reference on binary vs decimal prefixes.