Convert kilobytes to bits

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1 KB is 8,192 bits in the binary standard or 8,000 bits in the decimal one. Type a number of kilobytes and the converter multiplies it by 8,192 or by 8,000, depending on the standard you pick below the fields.

KB
bit
Unit standard

Binary (1024): what Windows and RAM use. Decimal (1000): what drive makers, macOS and search engines use.

to

What are a bit, a byte and a kilobyte?

A bit is the most basic unit of information in computing. It holds one of two values, most often written as 1 and 0, and a group of eight bits is called a byte[1]. Four bits have a name of their own, a nibble, which is why Windows Calculator lists Nibble between Bits and Bytes.

A kilobyte is 1,000 bytes under the SI meaning of the prefix kilo, and its internationally recommended symbol is kB. When people talk about memory, though, a kilobyte often means 1,024 bytes, because memory chips are built in powers of two[2]. To keep the two apart, the IEC approved separate names for binary multiples in December 1998, so 1,024 bytes is officially a kibibyte (KiB)[3]. Windows still shows file sizes in KB with the 1,024-byte meaning. To see a kilobyte in bytes, use the KB to bytes converter.

How many bits are in 1 KB?

A kilobyte holds 8,192 bits in the binary standard and 8,000 bits in the decimal one. Both numbers come from the same step: you multiply the bytes in a kilobyte by the 8 bits in each byte, so 1,024 × 8 = 8,192 and 1,000 × 8 = 8,000.

That gives two versions of the formula:

  • binary: bits = KB × 8,192,
  • decimal: bits = KB × 8,000.

A 64 KB file, as File Explorer in Windows reports it, holds 524,288 bits, because Windows counts a kilobyte as 1,024 bytes. The same 64 KB read in the decimal standard comes to 512,000 bits, which is 12,288 bits fewer. The gap grows with the number of kilobytes, and the binary result is always 2.4% larger than the decimal one.

How many bits is a given number of kilobytes?

Exact results in both standards. Multiplying by 8,192 or 8,000 needs no rounding.
KilobytesBinary (1024)Decimal (1000)
0.5 KB4,096 bits4,000 bits
1 KB8,192 bits8,000 bits
2 KB16,384 bits16,000 bits
4 KB32,768 bits32,000 bits
8 KB65,536 bits64,000 bits
16 KB131,072 bits128,000 bits
32 KB262,144 bits256,000 bits
64 KB524,288 bits512,000 bits
100 KB819,200 bits800,000 bits
128 KB1,048,576 bits1,024,000 bits
256 KB2,097,152 bits2,048,000 bits
500 KB4,096,000 bits4,000,000 bits
512 KB4,194,304 bits4,096,000 bits
1,000 KB8,192,000 bits8,000,000 bits
1,024 KB8,388,608 bits8,192,000 bits
1,440 KB11,796,480 bits11,520,000 bits

KB, kB, Kb or kbit: kilobyte or kilobit?

A kilobyte is eight times bigger than a kilobit, yet their abbreviations often differ by the case of a single letter. A capital B is the standard symbol for the byte. The bit is written "bit" under the IEC 80000-13 standard, while the IEEE 1541 standard uses a lowercase "b", which is easy to confuse with "B"[1]. A kilobit is 1,000 bits, written kbit[1], so 1 KB equals 8.192 kilobits in the binary standard and exactly 8 kilobits in the decimal one.

You mostly meet kilobits in connection speeds, such as a 128 kbit/s audio stream. A speed is given in bits per second, while this converter works with an amount of data.

How many bits does a 1.44 MB floppy disk hold?

Red 3.5-inch Imation floppy disk with 2HD IBM and 1.44MB printed on the metal shutter and a handwritten date on the label
The metal shutter of this disk is printed with 1.44MB. Those 1.44 MB are really 1,440 kilobytes of 1,024 bytes each, which is 11,796,480 bits. Photo: Fredy Jacob, Unsplash.

The capacity of the 3.5-inch high-density floppy was sold as 1.44 MB, a figure that mixes both standards. It stands for 1,440 kilobytes of 1,024 bytes, or 1,474,560 bytes[4]. To get the number of bits, type 1440 in the field and leave the standard on Binary (1024). The converter shows 11,796,480 bits.

How do you convert KB to bits in Windows Calculator and Excel?

Both programs convert data units, but each names the 1,024-byte kilobyte differently.

  1. Windows Calculator

    Open the Calculator menu and pick Data under Converter. The Kilobytes unit there means 1,000 bytes, so 1 kilobyte comes out as 8,000 bits. To get 8,192 bits, pick Kibibytes instead. The list also has Kilobits, abbreviated Kb, which is easy to misread as KB[5].

  2. Excel, decimal standard

    Type =CONVERT(A2,"kbyte","bit"). The prefix k means 1,000 in Excel[6], so with 1 in cell A2 the formula returns 8,000.

  3. Excel, binary standard

    Type =CONVERT(A2,"kibyte","bit"). The prefix ki means 1,024, so with 1 in cell A2 the formula returns 8,192.

Which ways of typing kilobytes does this converter accept?

Paste the number of kilobytes the way you have it: with a decimal point, with a thousands separator or together with the unit. The field reads each of these and converts it on its own, and the table shows exactly what it does with each one. The converter calculated the results itself in the Binary (1024) standard.
What you typeWhat the converter showsHow we read it
1.512288 bitThe point separates the decimal part, so the field holds one and a half kilobytes.
1,50012288000 bitA comma before three digits groups the thousands, so the field holds fifteen hundred kilobytes. A note below the field says so, and if you meant one and a half, type 1.5.
1,512288 bitA comma before a single digit can only be a decimal comma, as used across most of Europe, so we count one and a half kilobytes.
1 50012288000 bitWe skip the space between the thousands, so the field holds fifteen hundred kilobytes.
2½20480 bitWe add a ½ character copied from text to the number in front of it, so we count two and a half kilobytes.
1e38192000 bitWe read spreadsheet scientific notation as it stands: 1e3 is a thousand kilobytes.
64 KB524288 bitThe field's own unit pasted with the number does no harm, because we take the number in front of it.
64 kb524288 bitWe also treat the lowercase abbreviation, as people type it in messages and spreadsheets, as kilobytes.
8192 bit8192 bitBits pasted into the kilobytes field go in as 1 KB, with a note below the field, so the result is the same bits again.
1024 bytes8192 bitBytes, such as a size copied from a file's Properties window, go into the field as 1 KB, with a note below it.
2 MB16777216 bitMegabytes pasted into the kilobytes field go in as 2048 KB, because a megabyte is 1,024 KB in the Binary (1024) standard.
1.44 MB12079595.52 bitThe field turns a pasted 1.44 MB into 1474.56 KB, because in the binary standard it multiplies megabytes by 1,024. Type the disk's real capacity, 1,440 KB, in kilobytes.

Convert other units to Bits

bytes to bits

Convert Kilobytes to other units

KB to bytesKB to MBKB to KiB

Sources

  1. Bit — Wikipedia
  2. Kilobyte — Wikipedia
  3. Prefixes for binary multiples — National Institute of Standards and Technology
  4. Binary prefix — Wikipedia
  5. Windows Calculator source code (UnitConverterDataLoader.cs) — Microsoft, GitHub
  6. CONVERT function — Microsoft
  7. Base pair — Wikipedia

Every figure in the tables was computed from the unit definitions and checked arithmetically before publication. Historical values and the names of local units come from the sources listed above.

Content last reviewed: · written and checked by the Arteon team

Frequently asked questions about kilobytes and bits

Is 1 KB equal to 1,024 bits?

No. 1 KB is 1,024 bytes, not bits, and only multiplying by the 8 bits in each byte gives 8,192 bits. 1,024 bits is 128 bytes, or 0.125 KB.

What does kb mean in DNA, and can I convert kb to bp here?

In molecular biology, kb stands for kilobase, a unit equal to 1,000 base pairs of DNA or RNA, so 1 kb is 1,000 bp. It has nothing to do with kilobytes, and this converter does not handle it. To keep the two apart, biologists also write kbp for base pairs[7].

Arteon free tool screenshot: Convert kilobytes to bits

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