MB to GB
Convert megabytes to gigabytes. Divide by 1000 for decimal units, or 1024 if the source means binary, with typical file sizes.
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The formula
GB = MB ÷ 1000In SI units a gigabyte is a thousand megabytes, exactly as a kilometre is a thousand metres. If the source you are reading means binary megabytes and gigabytes — which older software and much of Windows still do — the divisor is 1024 instead.
| Reading | Divisor | 1500 MB becomes |
|---|---|---|
| Decimal (SI) | 1000 | 1.5 GB |
| Binary (what Windows calls GB) | 1024 | 1.46 GB |
The 2.4% difference rarely matters at this scale. It compounds badly at terabytes — see GB to GiB.
Quick reference
| MB | GB |
|---|---|
| 1 MB | 0.001 GB |
| 100 MB | 0.1 GB |
| 500 MB | 0.5 GB |
| 700 MB | 0.7 GB |
| 1000 MB | 1 GB |
| 1024 MB | 1.024 GB |
| 4700 MB | 4.7 GB |
Typical file sizes
| Megabytes | Gigabytes | |
|---|---|---|
| Photo, phone camera | 3–5 MB | 0.004 GB |
| Photo, RAW | 25–50 MB | 0.03–0.05 GB |
| MP3, 4 minutes at 320 kbps | 9.6 MB | 0.01 GB |
| App, mobile | 50–200 MB | 0.05–0.2 GB |
| CD | 700 MB | 0.7 GB |
| Episode, 1080p | 1500 MB | 1.5 GB |
| Single-layer DVD | 4700 MB | 4.7 GB |
| Film, 1080p | 4000–8000 MB | 4–8 GB |
| Dual-layer Blu-ray | 50,000 MB | 50 GB |
| Modern game | 50,000–150,000 MB | 50–150 GB |
Mobile data
Data plans are sold in gigabytes and consumption is reported in megabytes, which is the usual reason for this conversion:
| Activity | Per hour |
|---|---|
| Music streaming, standard | 70 MB |
| Video call | 500 MB |
| Video, 480p | 700 MB |
| Video, 1080p | 1500 MB |
| Video, 4K | 7000 MB |
An hour of 1080p video a day is about 45 GB a month, which is why “unlimited” plans so often carry a threshold in the low tens of gigabytes.
Estimating in your head
Move the decimal point three places. 2500 MB is 2.5 GB. That is the entire method, and it is exact in decimal units.