1 gigabyte (1000³) = 1 000 MB
1 GB = 1 000 MB · type math like (12*4)+6.5
GB to MB is used when comparing file sizes with storage or data plans. Phone plans, cloud quotas and app stores mix gigabytes and megabytes, so converting helps estimate how many photos, songs or videos fit.
Mobile data is the most common place you meet this. A 5 GB plan is 5,000 MB. Streaming music at 160 kbps uses about 72 MB per hour, so 5 GB covers about 69 hours of music. HD video streaming uses around 1.5–3 GB per hour.
Software downloads and updates are given in both. A 2.4 GB game patch is 2,400 MB, and a 1 GB app is 1,000 MB. On slower connections, knowing the MB figure helps estimate download time: at 10 MB/s, 2,400 MB takes 4 minutes.
Camera storage is another use. A 64 GB memory card holds 64,000 MB, enough for about 2,500 RAW photos at 25 MB each.
When comparing email storage or older devices, values in MB still appear. A 1.44 MB floppy disk held 0.00144 GB; a 4 GB iPod held 4,000 MB. Modern phones offer 128 GB or 128,000 MB, roughly 89,000 floppy disks.
Upload limits are often in MB. If a site accepts files up to 250 MB and your video is 1.2 GB, it is 1,200 MB, nearly five times too large.
Older digital cameras used memory cards of 512 MB or 1 GB. A 1 GB card held 1,000 MB, enough for around 300 photos from a 5 megapixel camera. Today's cameras produce files of 20 MB or more, so the same card would hold only about 50.
Streaming services publish data usage per hour. Netflix estimates about 1 GB per hour for standard definition, or 1,000 MB, and 3 GB per hour for HD.
A quick check: the MB figure is exactly 1,000 times the GB figure in decimal units, so 0.25 GB is 250 MB and 12 GB is 12,000 MB. If your result is 1,024 times larger, you used binary units, which apply to MiB and GiB. Data plan apps from mobile carriers usually count in decimal units, so the 1,000 factor matches what they bill.
MB = GB × 1 000
Reverse: 1 MB = 0.001 GB.
How many megabytes is a 4.7 GB DVD?
Answer: 4.7 GB = 4,700 MB.
| GB | MB |
|---|---|
| 1 GB | 1 000 MB |
| 2 GB | 2 000 MB |
| 3 GB | 3 000 MB |
| 4 GB | 4 000 MB |
| 5 GB | 5 000 MB |
| 6 GB | 6 000 MB |
| 7 GB | 7 000 MB |
| 8 GB | 8 000 MB |
| 9 GB | 9 000 MB |
| 10 GB | 10 000 MB |
| 11 GB | 11 000 MB |
| 12 GB | 12 000 MB |
| 13 GB | 13 000 MB |
| 14 GB | 14 000 MB |
| 15 GB | 15 000 MB |
| GB | MB |
|---|---|
| 16 GB | 16 000 MB |
| 17 GB | 17 000 MB |
| 18 GB | 18 000 MB |
| 19 GB | 19 000 MB |
| 20 GB | 20 000 MB |
| 25 GB | 25 000 MB |
| 30 GB | 30 000 MB |
| 40 GB | 40 000 MB |
| 50 GB | 50 000 MB |
| 75 GB | 75 000 MB |
| 100 GB | 100 000 MB |
| 250 GB | 250 000 MB |
| 500 GB | 500 000 MB |
| 1 000 GB | 1 000 000 MB |
A single-layer DVD holds 4.7 GB, which is 4,700 MB.
A 2 GB mobile plan is 2,000 MB, about 400 five-megabyte photos.
A 1.5 GB HD film is 1,500 MB.
Storage makers use 1,000. Operating systems like Windows use 1,024 but label it GB. That's why 4.7 GB shows as 4.38 GiB.
Internet speeds are in megabits (Mb). 100 Mb/s downloads 12.5 MB per second.
mb is millibit, technically. Write MB for megabytes.
A gigabyte (GB) is 1,000,000,000 bytes, using the decimal SI prefix giga.
Origin. Decimal prefixes for storage became standard in the hard drive industry in the 1980s and were confirmed by the IEC in 1998.
Used today. Phone storage, data plans, RAM labels and cloud storage.
A megabyte (MB) is 1,000,000 bytes.
Origin. Mega- is the SI prefix for one million; the IEC clarified its decimal storage meaning in 1998.
Used today. Photo, document and app file sizes.
In decimal units, used here and by storage makers, 1,000 MB. 1,024 applies to binary MiB and GiB.
500 MB.
Roughly 200–300 smartphone JPEGs at 3–5 MB each.
The system uses part of it, and some phones report in binary units.