A gigabyte (GB) and a terabyte (TB) are units that measure digital storage, and a terabyte is the larger of the two. In the decimal system used on storage labels, 1 TB equals 1000 GB, so to convert gigabytes to terabytes you divide by 1000. The converter below does this for you and also shows the binary result, where 1 TB equals 1024 GB.
What Gigabytes and Terabytes Are
A byte is the basic unit of digital storage, large enough to hold a single character. The kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, and terabyte are successive steps up that scale, each one a fixed multiple of the unit below it. A gigabyte holds about a billion bytes and a terabyte about a trillion. In practice a gigabyte is the size of a long video clip or a folder of photos, while a terabyte is the size of a full drive that can hold thousands of those files. The relationship is simple: one terabyte is one thousand gigabytes in decimal counting, which is the counting that storage products are labeled with.
How to Use It
- Type the amount you want to convert into the Value field.
- Set the From unit to GB and the To unit to TB. You can pick any pair of units, from bytes up to petabytes.
- Choose the Standard: Decimal (1000) for how drives and bandwidth are labeled, or Binary (1024) for how operating systems report sizes.
- Read the result at the top, then check the full list below it to see the same amount expressed in every unit at once.
Decimal 1000 vs Binary 1024 (TB vs TiB)
There are two ways to count these units, and they give different answers. The decimal standard treats each step as 1000 of the unit below, so 1 TB equals 1000 GB. The binary standard treats each step as 1024, so 1 TB equals 1024 GB. The binary values have their own names, where a binary terabyte is a tebibyte (TiB), but most software still prints the label TB while doing the binary math. This is the source of the long-running confusion between advertised and usable drive size.
| Gigabytes (GB) | Terabytes (decimal, 1000) | Terabytes (binary, 1024) |
|---|---|---|
| 500 GB | 0.5 TB | 0.4883 TB |
| 1000 GB | 1 TB | 0.9766 TB |
| 1024 GB | 1.024 TB | 1 TB |
| 2000 GB | 2 TB | 1.9531 TB |
| 4000 GB | 4 TB | 3.9063 TB |
| 8000 GB | 8 TB | 7.8125 TB |
Storage Sizes in Practice
Gigabytes describe the things you save day to day. A high-resolution photo runs a few megabytes, an hour of streamed video runs a few gigabytes, and a modern game can take 100 GB or more. Terabytes describe the containers that hold all of it. A single 1 TB drive stores roughly the equivalent of 250 full-length movies or a quarter of a million photos. Knowing the conversion lets you read a spec sheet correctly: a 2 TB drive holds about 2000 GB of decimal space, which the operating system will present as roughly 1.82 TB once it counts in binary.
When to Use It
Reach for this converter when you are comparing drive capacities, planning a backup, or trying to understand why a new drive shows less free space than the box claimed. Use the decimal standard when reading product labels, internet plans, or cloud storage tiers, since those are all sold in decimal units. Switch to the binary standard when you want the number to match what your file manager or disk utility reports, because operating systems count in binary.
Last Thoughts on Converting GB to TB
Converting gigabytes to terabytes is a single division: by 1000 for the decimal units on storage labels, or by 1024 for the binary units your operating system reports. The only thing that trips people up is mixing the two standards, which is exactly why a 1 TB drive looks like 0.91 TB once it is plugged in. Pick the standard that matches the source you are reading and the numbers line up.
Try a value above, then explore the rest of our free online tools. To work in the other direction or at a smaller scale, see our TB to GB converter, our MB to GB converter, and our bytes to bits converter.
Key Takeaways:
- A terabyte is larger than a gigabyte; to convert GB to TB you divide by 1000 in decimal or by 1024 in binary.
- Storage drives, internet plans, and cloud tiers are labeled in decimal units, where 1 TB equals 1000 GB.
- Operating systems count in binary, where 1 TB equals 1024 GB, which is why a drive shows less space than advertised.
- The difference between decimal and binary is about 9.5% at the terabyte scale, not missing storage.
- This converter runs entirely in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How many GB are in a TB?
In the decimal system used on storage labels, 1 TB equals 1000 GB. In the binary system that operating systems use, 1 TB equals 1024 GB. The converter shows both so you can match whichever source you are reading.
How do I convert GB to TB?
Divide the number of gigabytes by 1000 for the decimal result, or by 1024 for the binary result. For example, 1500 GB is 1.5 TB in decimal or about 1.46 TB in binary.
Why does my 1 TB drive show as 0.91 TB?
The drive maker counts in decimal, so 1 TB means one trillion bytes. Your operating system counts in binary, dividing by 1024 at each step, so it reports that same trillion bytes as about 0.91 TB. No space is lost; the two systems just use different multipliers.
Is a terabyte bigger than a gigabyte?
Yes. A terabyte is one thousand gigabytes in decimal counting, so it is much larger. One terabyte can hold roughly a thousand times more data than a single gigabyte.
What is the difference between TB and TiB?
A TB (terabyte) is the decimal unit equal to 1000 GB, while a TiB (tebibyte) is the binary unit equal to 1024 GiB. They measure the same kind of thing but with different multipliers, so a TiB is about 9.5% larger than a TB.
Does this converter send my numbers anywhere?
No. The conversion runs entirely inside your browser, so nothing you enter is uploaded, logged, or stored on any server. You can confirm this by using the tool with no internet connection.
