giga

Giga is a decimal prefix in the metric system that denotes 10^9. It is part of the International System of Units (SI), used to express large quantities alongside other prefixes such as kilo, mega, and tera. The symbol for giga is G, and the name derives from the Greek gigas, meaning “giant.” The prefix was adopted into the SI system in 1960 by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) and is widely used in science, engineering, and everyday measurement.

In science and engineering, giga appears in units such as gigahertz (GHz), gigapascal (GPa), and gigabyte (GB). In data storage and communications, a giga typically denotes 1,000,000,000 units (bytes or bits). However, computing also uses a binary prefix set: a gibibyte (GiB) equals 2^30 bytes, or 1,073,741,824 bytes. To avoid ambiguity between decimal and binary interpretations, many contexts now distinguish between gigabytes (GB) and gibibytes (GiB).

Giga is also used as a personal name or nickname in some cultures and languages, appearing as a given name or informal form of longer names in various regions. Beyond measurement, the term appears in brand names and product designations, reflecting its association with largeness or scalability.