inetaton

Inetaton is a proposed informal unit of information used in discussions of global-scale data flows. It is not an official measurement and has no universally accepted value. The term appears primarily in speculative writing, thought experiments about future internet capacity, and some online discussions about data scales.

Etymology and concept: The name combines "internet" with the common metric suffix -ton, mirroring other large-scale data terms. Because there is no formal definition, the magnitude assigned to one inetaton varies by author. In practice, inetaton is used as a rough shorthand for extremely large data quantities, often at scales associated with exabytes to zettabytes of data.

Definitions and usage: In different contexts, 1 inetaton can be described as the amount of data transferred or stored by a global network over a defined period, typically a day or a year, under hypothetical conditions. Some writers anchor it near exabyte or zettabyte scales, while others treat it as a more speculative, flexible benchmark to illustrate limits of infrastructure, energy consumption, or data governance. Because of this lack of standardization, inetaton is mainly a conceptual tool rather than a precise unit.

Related terms: The concept is discussed alongside established data units such as bit, byte, exabit, and zettabyte, as well as concepts of data rate and data transfer.