megabyte

computer science

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July 21, 2026

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A megabyte (MB) is a unit of digital information storage. It is equivalent to 1,024 kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes. A byte is the fundamental unit of computer information, typically consisting of 8 adjacent binary digits (bits), each being a 0 or 1. Bytes are the smallest operable units of storage in computer technology and can represent a single character or a number. While the computer industry has largely adopted decimal prefixes for data storage (where prefixes denote a thousandfold increase), historically, and in some cases still, prefixes like "mega" refer to powers of two. Thus, a megabyte can also refer to one million bytes.12

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byte
…= 2¹⁰), and thus one megabyte (MB) was 1,024 × 1,024 bytes and so on. However, with some notable exceptions such as the Microsoft Windows operating system, the computer industry has switched over to decimal prefixes, in which prefixes denote a thousandfold increase in bytes.
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…= 2¹⁰), and thus one megabyte (MB) was 1,024 × 1,024 bytes and so on. However, with some notable exceptions such as the Microsoft Windows operating system, the computer industry has switched over to decimal prefixes, in which prefixes denote a thousandfold increase in bytes.
Read More