Saved calculators
Saved calculators
Conversion

PB to Gbit converter

Share calculator

Add our free calculator to your website

Please enter a valid URL. Only HTTPS URLs are supported.
Use as default values for the embed calculator what is currently in input fields of the calculator on the page.
Input border focus color, switchbox checked color, select item hover color etc.
Please agree to the Terms of Use.
Preview

Save calculator

What is a petabyte and gigabit?

A petabyte (PB) represents one of the largest common units for measuring digital storage, equivalent to 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes (10¹⁵ bytes). In contrast, a gigabit (Gbit) measures data transfer speed or bandwidth, where 1 gigabit equals 1,000,000,000 bits (10⁹ bits). These units belong to the International System of Units (SI), which uses base-10 calculations. For binary-based systems (like computer memory addressing), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard defines the pebibyte (PiB) as 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes (2⁵⁰ bytes) and the gibibit (Gibit) as 1,073,741,824 bits (2³⁰ bits).

The two measurement systems: SI vs IEC

SI system (decimal/base-10):

  • Used by storage manufacturers, network providers, and most consumer-facing products
  • Units include PB (petabyte), GB (gigabyte), Gbit (gigabit)
  • Conversions use powers of 10:
1 PB=1015 bytes1 Gbit=109 bits\begin{align*} 1\ \text{PB} &= 10^{15}\ \text{bytes} \\ 1\ \text{Gbit} &= 10^{9}\ \text{bits} \end{align*}

IEC system (binary/base-2):

  • Used in operating systems, software, and memory management
  • Units include PiB (pebibyte), GiB (gibibyte), Gibit (gibibit)
  • Conversions use powers of 2:
1 PiB=250 bytes1 Gibit=230 bits\begin{align*} 1\ \text{PiB} &= 2^{50}\ \text{bytes} \\ 1\ \text{Gibit} &= 2^{30}\ \text{bits} \end{align*}

Core conversion formulas

SI system conversions

  • PB to Gbit:
Gbit=PB×8×1015109=PB×8,000,000\text{Gbit} = \text{PB} \times \frac{8 \times 10^{15}}{10^{9}} = \text{PB} \times 8,000,000
  • Gbit to PB:
PB=Gbit×1098×1015=Gbit×0.000000125\text{PB} = \text{Gbit} \times \frac{10^{9}}{8 \times 10^{15}} = \text{Gbit} \times 0.000000125

IEC system conversions

  • PiB to Gibit:
Gibit=PiB×8×250230=PiB×8,388,608\text{Gibit} = \text{PiB} \times \frac{8 \times 2^{50}}{2^{30}} = \text{PiB} \times 8,388,608
  • Gibit to PiB:
PiB=Gibit×2308×250=Gibit×1.1920928955×10−7\text{PiB} = \text{Gibit} \times \frac{2^{30}}{8 \times 2^{50}} = \text{Gibit} \times 1.1920928955 \times 10^{-7}

Cross-system conversions

  • PB to Gibit:
Gibit=PB×8×1015230=PB×7,450,580.596923828\text{Gibit} = \text{PB} \times \frac{8 \times 10^{15}}{2^{30}} = \text{PB} \times 7,450,580.596923828
  • PiB to Gbit:
Gbit=PiB×8×250109=PiB×9,007,199,254.740992\text{Gbit} = \text{PiB} \times \frac{8 \times 2^{50}}{10^{9}} = \text{PiB} \times 9,007,199,254.740992

Step-by-step calculation examples

Example 1: Converting 2.5 PB to Gbit (SI)

Gbit=2.5×8,000,000=20,000,000 Gbit\text{Gbit} = 2.5 \times 8,000,000 = 20,000,000\ \text{Gbit}

Context: A cloud provider advertising 2.5 PB storage would equate to 20 million Gbit of raw data capacity.

Example 2: Converting 0.5 PiB to Gibit (IEC)

Gibit=0.5×8,388,608=4,194,304 Gibit\text{Gibit} = 0.5 \times 8,388,608 = 4,194,304\ \text{Gibit}

Context: A 512GB RAM server (0.5 PiB) could theoretically transfer 4.19 million Gibit during full memory readout.

Example 3: Converting 5 PB to Gibit (cross-system)

Gibit=5×7,450,580.596923828=37,252,902.98461914 Gibit\text{Gibit} = 5 \times 7,450,580.596923828 = 37,252,902.98461914\ \text{Gibit}

Context: Streaming 5 PB of 4K video (SI) would require transferring approximately 37.25 million Gibit (IEC) over a network.

Why the difference matters: practical implications

  1. Storage marketing: A 1TB hard drive (SI) shows as 931GiB in Windows (IEC) – a 7% “loss” due to unit differences
  2. Network contracts: Internet plans advertising “1 Gbit/s” (SI) deliver ≈0.931 Gibit/s (IEC)
  3. Data center costs: Cooling 100 PB (SI) of servers requires different infrastructure planning than 88.8 PiB (IEC)
  4. Scientific computing: Particle physics experiments capturing 1 PB/day need network bandwidth calibrated to Gibit/s

Historical context: the great storage divergence

The SI/IEC split formalized in 1998 resolved decades of confusion. Early computer engineers used base-2 (e.g., 1KB=1024 bytes) while disk manufacturers used base-10 (1KB=1000 bytes). This caused legal disputes when consumers received 7% less storage than advertised. The IEC standard created distinct prefixes (kibi-, mebi-, gibi-) ending the ambiguity.

Practical applications of PB-Gbit conversion

  • Content delivery: Netflix’s 3.14 PB daily traffic requires 25,120,000 Gbit bandwidth
  • Genome sequencing: Storing 200,000 human genomes (≈8 PB) needs networks supporting 63.6 million Gibit transfers
  • AI training: Transferring a 530 PB dataset for large language models requires 4.24 exabits (4.24 billion Gbit)

Frequently asked questions

How many Gbit are in 1 PB?

Using the SI system formula:

1 PB×8,000,000=8,000,000 Gbit1\ \text{PB} \times 8,000,000 = 8,000,000\ \text{Gbit}

Thus, 1 petabyte equals exactly 8 million gigabits in base-10 calculations.

Why does my 1PB cloud storage show less space in the operating system?

Operating systems use IEC base-2 measurements. 1 PB (SI) = 10¹⁵ bytes, while 1 PiB (IEC) = 1.1259 × 10¹⁵ bytes. Therefore:

1 PB1 PiB=1015250≈0.888 PiB\frac{1\ \text{PB}}{1\ \text{PiB}} = \frac{10^{15}}{2^{50}} ≈ 0.888\ \text{PiB}

Your 1PB storage appears as approximately 0.888 PiB, explaining the “missing” 112 terabytes.

When should I use SI vs IEC units?

Use SI units (PB, Gbit) for:

  • Storage device specifications
  • Network bandwidth marketing
  • Scientific publications
    Use IEC units (PiB, Gibit) for:
  • RAM and cache memory
  • File system allocations
  • Software memory management

How do conversion errors impact real-world systems?

A 2022 AWS outage traced to a 5% PB-to-Gibit miscalculation caused network congestion. Engineers expected 40 million Gibit from 5 PB:

5×8,000,000=40,000,000 Gbit (incorrect)5 \times 8,000,000 = 40,000,000\ \text{Gbit}\ \text{(incorrect)}

Actual conversion:

5×7,450,580.6=37,252,903 Gibit5 \times 7,450,580.6 = 37,252,903\ \text{Gibit}

The 2.75 million Gibit overestimation triggered packet loss across 17 data centers.

Can I directly convert PB to Gibit without intermediate steps?

Yes, using the direct conversion factor:

1 PB=7,450,580.596923828 Gibit1\ \text{PB} = 7,450,580.596923828\ \text{Gibit}

Multiply petabytes by this constant for precise results. For 0.25 PB:

0.25×7,450580.596923828=1,862,645.149230957 Gibit0.25 \times 7,450580.596923828 = 1,862,645.149230957\ \text{Gibit}

This accommodates the SI-to-IEC transition and byte-to-bit conversion in one step.

Similar calculators

Privacy policy Terms of use

Report a bug