megabyte (decimal) (MB)
1 megabyte (decimal) = 1,000,000 bytes
What is megabyte (decimal)?
A megabyte in the decimal system is a data unit equal to 1,000 kilobytes. It is commonly used by storage manufacturers, internet service providers, and operating systems to express file sizes and storage capacities.
Notes: Decimal prefix
Real-world uses
Megabytes are the everyday unit for typical file sizes: photos (2–10 MB), MP3 songs (3–10 MB), mobile app downloads (10–100 MB), and email attachments. Mobile data plans are often described in megabytes or gigabytes. A minute of compressed video at 720p is roughly 40–80 MB.
History
The megabyte became a practical everyday unit in the 1980s as personal computers began shipping with hard drives in the megabyte range. Floppy disks (1.44 MB), early hard drives (10–40 MB), and CD-ROMs (650 MB) all popularised the unit during this era.
Common mistakes
The same decimal vs. binary ambiguity as kilobytes applies: 1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes (SI) vs. 1 MB = 1,048,576 bytes (legacy binary). Hard drive manufacturers use the decimal definition, so a "500 MB" drive shows slightly less in an OS that uses binary counting. The binary equivalent is the mebibyte (MiB).
When is this conversion used?
Operating systems and storage manufacturers use different base systems (binary vs decimal), which is why a '1 TB' drive shows less than 1 TB in your file manager. Understanding this conversion prevents confusion about available storage.
How to convert megabyte (decimal) to byte
To convert megabyte (decimal) to byte, multiply the value by 1,000,000.
Conversion formula (from base unit)
x * 1000000.0
Measurement standards
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC 80000-13) defines binary prefixes: 1 KiB = 1,024 bytes, 1 MiB = 1,048,576 bytes. The SI decimal prefixes (kB = 1,000 bytes, MB = 1,000,000 bytes) apply to data units as they do to all SI quantities.
Did you know?
By 2025, the global datasphere is estimated to reach 181 zettabytes — roughly 181 trillion gigabytes. If stored on standard Blu-ray discs, the stack would reach from Earth to Mars and back over 20 times.
| megabytes (decimal) | bytes |
|---|---|
| 0.1 | 100,000 |
| 0.5 | 500,000 |
| 1 | 1,000,000 |
| 2 | 2,000,000 |
| 5 | 5,000,000 |
| 10 | 10,000,000 |
| 25 | 25,000,000 |
| 50 | 50,000,000 |
| 100 | 100,000,000 |
| 250 | 250,000,000 |
| 500 | 500,000,000 |
| 1,000 | 1.000000e+09 |
Common values
| megabytes (decimal) | bytes | |
|---|---|---|
| A text email | 0.005 megabytes (decimal) | 5,000 bytes |
| An MP3 song (4 min) | 4 megabytes (decimal) | 4,000,000 bytes |
| A smartphone photo | 5 megabytes (decimal) | 5,000,000 bytes |
| An HD movie | 5,000 megabytes (decimal) | 5.000000e+09 bytes |
| A full hard drive | 1,000,000 megabytes (decimal) | 1.000000e+12 bytes |
Full megabyte (decimal) conversion table
| Unit | Value | Factor |
|---|---|---|
| byte | 1 MB = 1,000,000 B | × 1,000,000 |
| kilobyte (decimal) | 1 MB = 1,000 kB | × 1,000 |
| gigabyte (decimal) | 1 MB = 0.001 GB | × 0.001 |
| terabyte (decimal) | 1 MB = 0.000001 TB | × 0.000001 |
| bit | 1 MB = 8,000,000 b | × 8,000,000 |
| kibibyte (binary) | 1 MB = 976.5625 KiB | × 976.5625 |
| mebibyte (binary) | 1 MB = 0.95367432 MiB | × 0.95367432 |
| gibibyte (binary) | 1 MB = 0.00093132 GiB | × 0.00093132 |
| tebibyte (binary) | 1 MB = 9.094947e-07 TiB | × 9.094947e-07 |