GBs

GBs is an abbreviation that can refer to several distinct concepts depending on context. The two most common usages are gigabytes in computing and Great Britain as a geographic and political entity.

In computing, GB most often stands for gigabyte, a unit of digital information. In decimal (SI) terms, 1 GB equals 1,000,000,000 bytes. In binary usage, 1 GiB equals 1,073,741,824 bytes, and some contexts still use GB to denote this binary unit, though GiB is the preferred name to avoid confusion. Storage manufacturers typically advertise capacities in decimal GB, while operating systems and software may report capacities in gibibytes or mixed units. This distinction matters when comparing device specifications or memory sizes.

In geography and politics, GB is the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and is commonly used as shorthand in international contexts. Great Britain refers to the island containing England, Scotland, and Wales, but not Northern Ireland. In everyday language, GB may denote the country in sports, travel, and trade, though the official name remains the United Kingdom.

Other uses of the plural GBs are less common and depend on context. They can appear in databases or shorthand referring to a collection of gigabytes or in historical or institutional abbreviations unrelated to these meanings. In any case, the intended meaning is typically clear from surrounding information.