Kilo, mega, giga, tera, and peta are prefixes used to denote the quantity of something, such as, in

computing and telecommunications, a byte or a bit. Sometimes called prefix multipliers, these prefixes are also
used in electronics and physics. Each multiplier consists of a one-letter abbreviation and the prefix that it stands
for. In communications, electronics, and physics, multipliers are defined in powers of 10 from 10-24 to 1024,
proceeding in increments of three orders of magnitude (103 or 1,000). In IT and data storage, multipliers are
defined in powers of 2 from 210 to 280, proceeding in increments of ten orders of magnitude (210 or 1,024).

These multipliers are denoted in the following table.

Prefix Symbol(s) Power of 10 Power of 2

yocto- y 10-24 * -- Examples of quantities or phenomena in which power-of-
10 prefix multipliers apply include frequency (including
zepto- z 10-21 * -- computer clock speeds), physical mass, power, energy,
electrical voltage, and electrical current. Power-of-10
atto- a 10-18 * -- multipiers are also used to define binary data speeds. Thus,
femto- f 10-15 * -- for example, 1 kbps (one kilobit per second) is equal to 103,
or 1,000, bps (bits per second); 1 Mbps (one megabit per
pico- p 10-12 * -- second) is equal to 106, or 1,000,000, bps. (The lowercase k
is the technically correct symbol for kilo- when it represents
nano- n 10-9 * -- 103, although the uppercase K is often used instead.)
micro- µ 10-6 * -- When binary data is stored in memory or fixed media such
milli- m 10-3 * -- as a hard drive, diskette, ZIP disk, tape, or CD-ROM,
power-of-2 multipliers are used. Technically, the uppercase
centi- c 10-2 * -- K should be used for kilo- when it represents 210. Therefore
1 KB (one kilobyte) is 210, or 1,024, bytes; 1 MB (one
deci- d 10-1 * -- megabyte) is 220, or 1,048,576 bytes.
(none) -- 100 20
The choice of power-of-10 versus power-of-2 prefix
deka- D 10 1*
-- multipliers can appear arbitrary. It helps to remember that in
common usage, multiples of bits are almost always
hecto- h 102 * -- expressed in powers of 10, while multiples of bytes are
almost always expressed in powers of 2. Rarely is data
kilo- k or K ** 103 210 speed expressed in bytes per second, and rarely is data
storage or memory expressed in bits. Such usages are
mega- M 106 220
considered improper. Confusion is not likely, therefore,
giga- G 109 230 provided one adheres strictly to the standard usages of the
terms bit and byte.
tera- T 1012 240
peta- P 1015 250
exa- E 1018 * 260
Kibi, mebi, gibi, tebi, pebi, and
zetta- Z 1021 *
2 70 exbi are binary prefix
multipliers that, in 1998, were
yotta- Y 1024 * 280 approved as a standard by the
International Electrotechnical
* Not generally used to express data speed Commission (IEC) in an effort
** k = 103 and K = 210 to eliminate the confusion that
sometimes occurs between
decimal (power-of-10) and binary (power-of-2) numeration terms.
At present, the prefix multipliers kilo- (k or K), mega- (M), giga- (G), tera- (T), peta- (P), and exa- (E) are
ambiguous. In most of the physical sciences, and when describing quantities of objects generally, these
multipliers refer to powers of 10. However, when used to define data quantity in terms of bytes, they refer to
powers of 2. The following table denotes the most often-used prefixes and their meanings.

Power of 10 Power of 2 The power-of-10 multipliers and the power-of-2

Prefix Symbol(s) multipliers for a given word prefix are almost, but not
Quantities of x Bytes of Data
quite, the same. For example, the power-of-10
kilo- k or K ** 103 210 definition of kilo- (k) refers to 1,000, while the power-
of-2 definition (K) refers to 1,024. As if this is not
mega- M 106 220 confusing enough, when referring to a data speed of
one kilobit per second (1 kbps), analysts generally
giga- G 109 230
mean 1,000 bits per second (103 bps), but when talking
tera- T 1012 240 about one kilobyte (1 KB) of data storage, they usually
mean 1,024 bytes (210 B). This prevailing confusion
peta- P 1015 250 could be eliminated (some computer scientists believe)
by adopting special prefixes referring to the binary
exa- E 1018 * 260 quantities. The proposed scheme is as follows.
* Not generally used to express data speed
** k = 103 and K = 210

Full technical Proposed Proposed Numeric In scenarios such as the one mentioned above, if the new
name prefix symbol multiplier binary prefixes are used, it should be easy to know
whether an engineer is talking or writing about the
kilobinary kibi- Ki 210 decimal or binary multiplier. We will know that one
kilobit per second (1 kbps) means 1,000 bps, and one
megabinary mebi- Mi 220 kibibyte (1 KiB) means 1,024 bytes, for example.
gigabinary gibi- Gi 230
As of this writing, the binary prefix multipliers have not
terabinary tebi- Ti 240 yet come into general use.

petabinary pebi- Pi 250 Pronunciation: Based on a suggestion from NIST, "the

first syllable of the name of the binary-multiple prefix
exabinary exbi- Ei 260 should be pronounced in the same way as the first
syllable of the name of the corresponding International
Standard (SI) prefix, and the second syllable should be pronounced as 'bee.'" Thus, "kibi" would be pronounced
"KIH-bee"; "mebi" would be "MEH-bee", and so forth.