Kilobyte
Definition: A kilobyte (symbol: kB) equals 103 bytes, or 1,000 bytes. A byte itself is made up of eight bits (binary digits), which are the basic building blocks of digital information.
History / Origin
The kilobyte builds on the byte, which in turn builds on the bit, and it follows the standard SI (International System of Units) prefix system. The term "byte" itself dates back to 1956, coined by Werner Buchholz.
Things got a bit more complicated in 1998, when the International Electrotechnical Commission introduced a new set of prefixes for bytes, meant to work alongside the existing SI prefixes. The idea was to keep SI prefixes tied strictly to multiples of 1,000 bytes, while the new prefixes would handle multiples of 1,024 bytes (210) — the binary counting system that's long been the norm in information technology.
Current Use
Bytes show up constantly when talking about data storage — hard drives, flash-based storage, and DVDs, among others — though for those, you'll usually see larger units like megabytes or gigabytes doing the heavy lifting. Kilobytes tend to stick around for smaller stuff, like text documents.
Where Are Kilobytes Used?
Kilobytes are handy for describing files that are bigger than a few bytes but still pretty small — think text files, emails, icons, config files, source code, and network packets.
Once you're dealing with photos, music, apps, or videos, megabytes or gigabytes are usually a more natural fit.
Convert Kilobytes to Other File Size Units
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