What is KB, MB, GB and Why are They Important?

Understanding file size such as GB, MB, and KB is a great way to avoid exceeding the limited storage space on your device. It also can significantly help prevent sending too large files via email, social media platforms, or share to other devices. Thus, you may want to compress GB to MB or even KB, to get a smaller size. In this article, you will learn how large of the files with GB, MB, KB, and which file size takes too much space on the computer system. Also, you can find some methods to compress GB files to make smaller file sizes without losing quality.

Complete Explanation of Data Units [KB, MB, GB, TB, PB]

Bit

A bit is the smallest unit of digital information. It can have one of two values, which are 0 or 1. All digital data (from text and photos to videos and music) is stored as bits. Network speeds are also measured in bits per second, including Kbps, Mbps, and Gbps.

Byte

A byte contains 8 bits. Computers use bytes to store and work with data. A basic ASCII character (such as a letter or number) uses 1 byte. Characters from other languages can use more space (often 2 to 4 bytes. It depends on the encoding.

Kilobyte (KB)

Real-world sizes:

• Plain text email: 1-10 KB
• Short text document: 10-50 KB
• Low-resolution web thumbnail: 5-100 KB
• HTML page (without images): 20-100 KB

Megabyte (MB)

Real-world sizes:

• 3-minute MP3 song (128 kbps): ~3 MB
• High-quality JPEG photo from smartphone: 3-12 MB
• 1-minute 1080p video (H.264): 60-150 MB
• Word document with images: 1-10 MB
• App installation package: 10-500 MB

Gigabyte (GB)

The "missing" storage space explained: A "1 TB" hard drive (1,000,000,000,000 decimal bytes) ÷ 1,073,741,824 bytes per binary GB = ~931 GiB. Windows shows it as ~931 GB. macOS shows it the same way. You haven't lost any storage. Your OS just uses binary measurement while the manufacturer used decimal.

Real-world sizes:

• 90-minute HD movie (1080p, H.264 streaming quality): 1.5-4 GB
• 90-minute HD movie (1080p, Blu-ray quality): 8-30 GB
• 90-minute 4K movie (streaming quality, H.265): 7-20 GB
• 4K UHD Blu-ray movie (full quality): 50-100 GB
• Full smartphone photo library (average user, 1-2 years): 5-30 GB

Terabyte (TB)

Real-world context:

• Common laptop SSD: 512 GB-2 TB
• Common desktop HDD: 2-8 TB
• Large NAS (home file server): 8-100 TB
• 1 TB can hold approximately 500,000 photos (at 2 MB each) or 250 HD movies (at 4 GB each)

Petabyte (PB) and Beyond

Which is Bigger? KB, MB, or GB?

1. Comparison between KB, MB, and GB

From the explanation above about the memory unit measurements, it is obvious to know that Gigabytes are bigger than Megabytes and Kilobytes. However, you can precisely see the difference in these unit measurements in the table below:

In short, KB is the smallest unit, and GB is the biggest among those 3 items. When you check the storage space of your phones/computers, like 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, you can use the table above to calculate the specific videos or files can be stored.

2. Recommended KB/MB/GB Size for Photos and Videos

Even when you learn about the importance of memory measurement, the file size should be considered when you download or store files. You also need to make sure that the greater the file size is, the more it takes storage space. For photo quality, it is well recommended to keep files size under 100KB. For video, it is good to consider the duration, bitrate, and resolution of the video. For example, if you have a 2.5-hour long video with 1080p resolution, you can roughly store it to 1GB.

Photos

Videos

If you have files that are way too large for your storage space, don't worry! Here is an ultimate tool to reduce your video/photo file size without losing quality.

The Best Way to Compress GB Videos to MB with High Quality

AnyRec Video Converter is a professional tool to compress file size while maintaining the quality. It enables you to adjust the size slider to reduce GB videos to MB or even KB. At the meanwhile, you can adjust the resolution, bitrate, and more parameters to keep the high output quality. Besides direct compression, you can also crop or trim the videos to reduce size, since part of the content and data is deleted. Check the detailed steps below:

Step 1.Open AnyRec Video Converter and locate the "Toolbar" menu. Click the "Video Compressor" button and then the "Add" button to select the video file you want to reduce from 1GB to 500MB, 200MB, 100MB, 10MB, etc.

Step 2.Move the "Size" slider to compress video size by percentage or certain GB/MB/KB. Change video resolution and bitrate to shrink file size while remain the high quality.

Step 3.Preview it and choose the destination folder from "Save To" button. After that, click the "Compress" button to start compressing MP4 videos.

FAQs about KB, MB, and GB File Size

• What is next after Gigabytes or GB?

  Terabyte (TB) = 1,000 GB. Then Petabyte (PB) = 1,000 TB. Then Exabyte (EB), Zettabyte (ZB), Yottabyte (YB). For personal storage, TB is the largest unit most people encounter. Home NAS drives and cloud storage plans are increasingly measured in TB.

• How many GB is a movie?

  Measuring a movie file size depends on many factors such as the device you are going to use, the duration of the video, and more. If you are going to download a movie, it requires space from 700MB to 1.5GB.

• Can I reduce 1GB to 100MB?

  Yes. You can use a video compressor like AnyRec Video Converter to compress a 1GB file to 100MB. However, you need to remember that compressing too much means low quality, especially for a video file. It is better to follow the recommended size to reduce.

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