12kB

12 kB denotes a data quantity commonly written as 12 kilobytes. In practice, kilobyte can refer to two different values depending on convention: decimal kB equals 1,000 bytes, while binary usage often treats kB as 1,024 bytes and, more precisely, 12 kB as 12 KiB, i.e., 12,288 bytes. Consequently, 12 kB can mean either 12,000 bytes or 12,288 bytes in contexts that adopt the binary interpretation.

In bits, these values correspond to 96,000 bits for 12,000 bytes and 98,304 bits for 12,288 bytes. In megabytes, 12,000 bytes equal 0.012 MB (decimal), while 12,288 bytes equal 0.012288 MB.

Typical uses of the term include describing small files, short data buffers, or modest data transfers. The ambiguity between kB and KiB reflects historical conventions in computing, where some systems used decimal prefixes and others used binary prefixes. To reduce confusion, many standards now distinguish between kilobyte (kB) as 1,000 bytes and kibibyte (KiB) as 1,024 bytes.

See also kilobyte, kibibyte, mebibyte.