The smallest unit of information on a computer is a bit, which is short for the term binary digit and can only consist of the numbers 0 or 1. Bits are used in various combinations of the numbers 0 and 1 to create meaningful information, such as a byte.

A byte is a computer storage unit containing enough memory to hold a store a single character, such as a number or a letter. It is composed of eight bits.

Because bytes are a small unit, it is more common to see the terms kilobytes and gigabytes to refer to storage space on a computer.

Kilobyte: 1,024 bytes

Megabyte: 1,048,576 bytes or 1,024 kilobytes

Gigabyte: 1,073,741,824 bytes or 1,024 megabytes

It can be difficult to conceptualize the amount of electronic data contained in a byte.  Different documents take up varying amounts of space.

The following examples demonstrate the approximate quantities of data that can be stored in a single gigabyte of space:

Microsoft Word files: 65,000 pages

E-mail files: 100,000 files

Text files: 675,000 pages

For more definitions, please visit our Glossary of Terms page.