Megabytes to Kilobytes Converter

This tool uses the binary definition of a megabyte, not the decimal one — a distinction that matters because operating systems and storage vendors don't always agree on it.

1024, not 1000

Under the binary (IEC-adjacent, but commonly still labeled "MB" by OSes) convention, 1 megabyte = 1024 kilobytes, because computing traditionally works in powers of 2. That's the factor this converter uses: kilobytes = megabytes × 1024. Storage manufacturers, by contrast, often market capacity using the decimal definition (1 MB = 1000 KB) — which is why a "1 TB" drive shows up as roughly 931 GB in Windows' binary-based file explorer.

Worked example

Enter 5 megabytes and the tool returns 5120 kilobytes (5 × 1024 = 5120). For 1 MB exactly, you'd get 1024 KB, not 1000.

Reference table

If you're cross-checking against a tool or spec sheet that uses the decimal (1 MB = 1000 KB) definition instead, expect the two results to diverge by about 2.4% — small at low values, more noticeable at large ones.