computabit

Computabit is a coined term used in discussions of digital information and computation. It is not an officially recognized unit, and no formal standard exists. In some contexts it is used as a shorthand for a unit of information associated with computational processes, rather than storage, and it is sometimes deployed to emphasize the distinction between data as stored and data as processed.

Its name blends computer and bit, and it has appeared in online forums, speculative articles, and some science-fiction adjacent writing since the late 2000s. Because of its informal status, definitions vary widely and are frequently context dependent.

Common interpretations include: a measure of information that has been computed or inferred, effectively one bit that has undergone a computation; a rate or capacity metric, such as a computabit per second, used in informal benchmarks to discuss the throughput of algorithms or devices; or a nonstandard unit for describing the information content processed by a system, sometimes contrasted with a byte as a storage unit.

Within formal technical literature and standards bodies, computabit is not adopted, and it is usually described as a colloquial or speculative term. In culture and media, it is occasionally used to illustrate ideas about efficiency, data flow, or the limits of computation.