What is a yottabyte?
A yottabyte (YB) represents the largest standardized unit of digital storage in the decimal system. To comprehend its scale:
- 1 YB = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes ($10^{24}$ bytes)
- It’s equivalent to 1 trillion terabytes or 1 quadrillion gigabytes.
- All digital data created globally in 2020 was estimated at approximately 64 zettabytes — meaning you’d need over 15 years of global data production to fill one yottabyte.
This unit’s name follows the metric convention where “yotta” denotes the eighth power of 1000 ($10^{24}$), established by the International System of Units in 1991. While no storage system currently holds a full yottabyte, projections suggest we might reach yottabyte-scale data by 2030 as global data creation accelerates.
Data storage systems: decimal vs binary
Digital storage uses two distinct measurement systems with different base units:
Decimal system (SI units)
- Based on powers of 10 ($1000 = 10^3$)
- Used by storage manufacturers and in networking
- Units: byte (B), kilobyte (kB), megabyte (MB), gigabyte (GB), terabyte (TB), petabyte (PB), exabyte (EB), zettabyte (ZB), yottabyte (YB)
Binary system (IEC units)
- Based on powers of 2 ($1024 = 2^{10}$)
- Used by operating systems and memory
- Units: byte (B), kibibyte (KiB), mebibyte (MiB), gibibyte (GiB), tebibyte (TiB), pebibyte (PiB), exbibyte (EiB), zebibyte (ZiB), yobibyte (YiB)
The distinction creates significant differences at large scales:
- 1 YB (decimal) = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes
- 1 YiB (binary) = 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 bytes
Kilobits and kibibits explained
When converting yottabytes, we typically express results in smaller units like kilobits (kbit) or kibibits (Kibit):
Kilobit (kbit)
- Decimal unit for data transfer rates
- 1 kbit = 1,000 bits
- Used in telecommunications and networking
Kibibit (Kibit)
- Binary unit for data measurement
- 1 Kibit = 1,024 bits
- Used in computing contexts like memory addressing
Since 1 byte = 8 bits, conversions between bytes and bits require multiplying by 8.
Conversion formulas
The core formulas for yottabyte conversions:
YB to kbit (decimal to decimal)
YB to Kibit (decimal to binary)
YiB to kbit (binary to decimal)
YiB to Kibit (binary to binary)
Practical conversion examples
Converting 0.0001 YB to kbit
This equals 800,000,000,000,000 kbit, enough bandwidth to stream 4 billion hours of HD video.
Converting 0.005 YiB to Kibit
This massive figure illustrates why we need specialized converters for such large values.
Data unit conversion table
| Unit (Decimal) | Symbol | Bytes equivalent | Bits equivalent | Unit (Binary) | Symbol | Bytes equivalent | Bits equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yottabyte | YB | $10^{24}$ | $8 \times 10^{24}$ | Yobibyte | YiB | $2^{80}$ | $8 \times 2^{80}$ |
| Zettabyte | ZB | $10^{21}$ | $8 \times 10^{21}$ | Zebibyte | ZiB | $2^{70}$ | $8 \times 2^{70}$ |
| Exabyte | EB | $10^{18}$ | $8 \times 10^{18}$ | Exbibyte | EiB | $2^{60}$ | $8 \times 2^{60}$ |
| Petabyte | PB | $10^{15}$ | $8 \times 10^{15}$ | Pebibyte | PiB | $2^{50}$ | $8 \times 2^{50}$ |
| Terabyte | TB | $10^{12}$ | $8 \times 10^{12}$ | Tebibyte | TiB | $2^{40}$ | $8 \times 2^{40}$ |
| Gigabyte | GB | $10^{9}$ | $8 \times 10^{9}$ | Gibibyte | GiB | $2^{30}$ | $8 \times 2^{30}$ |
| Megabyte | MB | $10^{6}$ | $8 \times 10^{6}$ | Mebibyte | MiB | $2^{20}$ | $8 \times 2^{20}$ |
| Kilobyte | kB | $10^{3}$ | $8 \times 10^{3}$ | Kibibyte | KiB | $2^{10}$ | $8 \times 2^{10}$ |
| Kilobit | kbit | 125 | 1000 | Kibibit | Kibit | 128 | 1024 |
Frequently asked questions
How many kilobits are in 3 yottabytes?
Using the decimal-to-decimal conversion:
This equals 24,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kbit — enough to transmit all words ever spoken by humans (estimated at 5 exabytes) nearly 5 million times.
What’s the difference between converting YB to kbit versus YiB to Kibit?
The key differences are:
- YB to kbit: Decimal bytes to decimal bits (base 10)
- YiB to Kibit: Binary bytes to binary bits (base 2)
The YiB to Kibit conversion maintains consistent binary scaling:
Why do we multiply by 8 in these conversions?
We multiply by 8 because there are 8 bits in 1 byte. This fundamental relationship applies regardless of the prefix system used. All byte-to-bit conversions require this multiplication step.
How significant is the difference between YB and YiB?
The relative difference grows exponentially with scale:
The ratio:
Thus, 1 YiB is approximately 20.89% larger than 1 YB — a difference of over 200 sextillion bytes!