Really 1 KB (KiloByte) equals 1024 bytes?

Question

Until now I believed that 1024 bytes equals 1 KB (kilobyte) but I was reading on the internet about decimal and binary system.

So, actually 1024 bytes = 1 KB would be the correct way to define or simply there is a general confusion?

Answer 1

What you are seeing is a marketing stunt. Since non-technical people don't know the difference between Metric Meg, Gig, etc. against the binary Meg, Gig, etc. marketers for storage will use the Metric calculation, thus 1000 Bytes == 1 KiloByte.

This can cause issues with development or highly technical people so you get the idea of a binary Meg, Gig, etc. which is designated with a bi instead of the standard combination (ex. Mebibyte vs Megabyte, or Gibibyte vs Gigabyte)

Answer 2

There are two ways to represent big numbers: You could either display them in multiples of 1000 (base 10) or 1024 (base 2). If you divide by 1000, you probably use the SI prefix names, if you divide by 1024, you probably use the IEC prefix names. The problem starts with dividing by 1024. Many applications use the SI prefix names for it and some use the IEC prefix names. But it is important how it is written:

Using IEC standard:
1 KiB = 1,024 bytes (Note: big K)
1 MiB = 1,024 KiB = 1,048,576 bytes

Using SI standard:
1 kB = 1,000 bytes (Note: small k)
1 MB = 1,000 kB = 1,000,000 bytes

Source: ubunty units policy: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnitsPolicy