What is the difference between a gigabit and a gigabyte?

Answer 1

First it is necessary to understand what a bit and a byte are.

A bit is in computer storage the condition of a piece of data that can exist in one of two conditions, such as if/then, on/off, or yes/no.

A byte is eight bits.

So, a gigabit is 1,000,000,000 bits. (1 billion)

A byte being eight bits then makes a gigabyte 1,000,000,000 bytes, or 8,000,000,000 bits.

Answer 2

Byte (b) and Gigabyte (gb) are different units of measure for binary data storage.

There is a direct conversion between the two... working backwards from gb:

1 gb = 1024 mb (Megabyte)

1 mb = 1024 kb (Kilobyte)

1 kb = 1024 b (Byte)

therefore 1 (gb) * 1024 (mb) * 1024 (kb) * 1024 (b)

yields 1 gb = 1,073,741,824 bytes