Exabyte (EB) - Unit Information & Conversion
What is a Exabyte?
Definition
An exabyte (EB) is a unit of digital information storage equal to 1018 bytes (one quintillion bytes, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes). It uses the standard SI decimal prefix 'exa-'. One exabyte is equivalent to 1,000 petabytes or one million terabytes.
History
The prefix 'exa-' (representing 1018) was adopted as an SI prefix by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) in 1975. The application of this prefix to the byte (exabyte) became necessary with the exponential growth of digital data, driven by the internet, large-scale scientific computing, big data analytics, and the expansion of cloud storage services. It represents a scale of data far beyond what was common in earlier computing eras.
Common Uses
Exabytes are used to measure extremely large volumes of data storage capacity or accumulated data, typically in contexts such as:
- Total storage capacity of major cloud providers (like AWS, Google Cloud, Azure).
- Aggregate size of the entire internet or large portions of it.
- Annual global data creation estimates.
- Storage requirements for massive scientific projects (e.g., Large Hadron Collider, Square Kilometre Array).
- Capacity of national archives or vast digital libraries.
- Discussions about future data storage needs and technologies.
Unit FAQs
How many bytes are in an exabyte?
There are 1018 (one quintillion, or 1 followed by 18 zeros) bytes in 1 exabyte (EB).
How many petabytes (PB) are in an exabyte (EB)?
There are 1,000 petabytes (PB) in 1 exabyte (EB).
How many gigabytes (GB) are in an exabyte (EB)?
There are 1,000,000,000 (one billion) gigabytes (GB) in 1 exabyte (EB).
What is the difference between an exabyte (EB) and an exbibyte (EiB)?
An exabyte (EB) uses the decimal prefix 'exa-' meaning 1018 bytes. An exbibyte (EiB) uses the binary prefix 'exbi-' meaning 260 bytes (1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes). An exbibyte is approximately 15% larger than an exabyte (1 EiB ≈ 1.15 EB). While binary prefixes (like GiB) are common for RAM, the distinction between EB and EiB is less frequently encountered in everyday use but is important in technical specifications requiring precision at massive scales.
Exabyte Conversion Formulas
To Bit:
To Byte:
To Kilobit:
To Kilobyte:
To Megabit:
To Megabyte:
To Gigabit:
To Gigabyte:
To Terabit:
To Terabyte:
To Petabit:
To Petabyte:
To Exabit:
To Kibibit:
To Kibibyte:
To Mebibit:
To Mebibyte:
To Gibibit:
To Gibibyte:
To Tebibit:
To Tebibyte:
To Pebibit:
To Pebibyte:
To Exbibit:
To Exbibyte:
Convert Exabyte
Need to convert Exabyte to other data storage units? Use our conversion tool.