What’s the actual difference between MB and GB in real-world usage?

Question

I always get confused when it comes to storage sizes—sometimes 1GB is shown as 1000MB and other times as 1024MB. Is there a simple explanation for the real difference between MB and GB? And how does this affect things like file sizes or the actual usable space on a hard drive?

Answer 1

I used to be confused too about why 1GB is sometimes 1000MB and other times 1024MB. It never really made sense to me. But after reading this explanation: https://www.orangehardwares.com/blogs/guides/mb-vs-gb-difference-between-megabyte-and-gigabyte, everything finally clicked. It clearly shows that manufacturers use the decimal system (1GB = 1000MB), while computers like Windows use the binary system (1GB = 1024MB). That’s why your hard drive always looks a bit smaller on your computer.

Answer 2

MB and mb are two diff things
MB =mega bytes , mb = mega bits
1 GB = 1024 MB
1gb = 1000mb

Usual hard drive contains 512 GB which is like 512*1024 MB which is huge for normal people but not for people like prof. programmers

Answer 3

Nathan Cole somehow Sololearn includes the comma in your link, so it messes up the hyperlink address. Here it is without the extraneous comma:
https://www.orangehardwares.com/blogs/guides/mb-vs-gb-difference-between-megabyte-and-gigabyte