Terabytes

Terabyte, symbol TB, is a unit of information storage in the decimal system, equal to one trillion (10^12) bytes. The name derives from the SI prefix tera- meaning trillion and the base unit byte.

In computing, another related unit is the tebibyte, symbol TiB, which uses binary prefixes: 1 TiB = 2^40 = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes. Because of binary usage, some contexts still refer to TB when 2^40 bytes are meant; this can cause confusion. In standard engineering usage, TB denotes 10^12 bytes.

Conversion relationships: 1 TB = 1,000 GB; 1 TB = 1,000,000 MB; 1 TiB = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes and equals about 1.0995 TB. So, 1 TB is approximately 0.9095 TiB.

Applications: TBs have become common in consumer storage devices (hard drives, solid-state drives), network storage, data centers, and cloud storage. They are used to describe capacity, data volumes, and transfer workloads. As data generation has grown, higher units such as petabytes and exabytes are more typical for large-scale storage.

Terminology and context: usage varies by industry and software. Decimal prefixes (TB) describe powers of ten, while binary prefixes (TiB, GiB, etc.) describe powers of two. Awareness of this distinction helps interpret device specifications, operating system reports, and data-transfer measurements. Related units include gigabyte, tebibyte, petabyte, and exabyte.