Megabyte

Multiple-byte units

Decimal
Value		Metric
1000	kB	kilobyte
1000²	MB	megabyte
1000³	GB	gigabyte
1000⁴	TB	terabyte
1000⁵	PB	petabyte
1000⁶	EB	exabyte
1000⁷	ZB	zettabyte
1000⁸	YB	yottabyte
1000⁹	RB	ronnabyte
1000¹⁰	QB	quettabyte

Binary
Value		IEC		Memory
1024	KiB	kibibyte	KB	kilobyte
1024²	MiB	mebibyte	MB	megabyte
1024³	GiB	gibibyte	GB	gigabyte
1024⁴	TiB	tebibyte	TB	terabyte
1024⁵	PiB	pebibyte	–
1024⁶	EiB	exbibyte	–
1024⁷	ZiB	zebibyte	–
1024⁸	YiB	yobibyte	–
1024⁹	–		–
1024¹⁰	–		–

Orders of magnitude of data

The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Its recommended unit symbol is MB. The unit prefix mega is a multiplier of 1000000 (10⁶) in the International System of Units (SI).^[1] Therefore, one megabyte is one million bytes of information. This definition has been incorporated into the International System of Quantities.

In the computer and information technology fields, other definitions have been used that arose for historical reasons of convenience. A common usage has been to designate one megabyte as 1048576bytes (2²⁰ B), a quantity that conveniently expresses the binary architecture of digital computer memory. The standards bodies have deprecated this usage of the megabyte in favor of a new set of binary prefixes,^[2] in which this quantity is designated by the unit mebibyte (MiB).

^ "SI Prefixes". Bureau international des poids et mesures. Archived from the original on June 7, 2007. Retrieved June 1, 2007.
^ "Definitions of the SI units: The binary prefixes". National Institute of Standards and Technology.

[bipm-1] "SI Prefixes". Bureau international des poids et mesures. Archived from the original on June 7, 2007. Retrieved June 1, 2007.

[NIST-2] "Definitions of the SI units: The binary prefixes". National Institute of Standards and Technology.

[1]

[2]