Convert Bytes to MB or GB in Excel (2 Easy Ways)

If you are working with data related to storage space or file-size, you will often need to convert between units.

You might intend on using the data in calculations or you might just want all the sizes to be displayed in the same unit.

This would require you to convert the sizes, say bytes to MB / GB or vice-versa.

In this tutorial, we will show you two different ways to convert bytes to MB or GB and vice-versa in Excel:

Table of Contents

Convert Bytes to MB or GB (Formula)

The basic method requires you to understand the relationship between the storage units and how to convert from one to the other.

In general, every unit grows by 1024. This means,

1024 Bytes = 1 KB
1024 KB = 1 MB
1024 MB = 1 GB

And so on!

In other words, if you want to convert a storage size from bytes to MB, you need to divide it by 1024 * 1024.

Similarly, to convert it to GB, you need to divide it by 1024 * 1024 * 1024.

Conversely, if you want to convert back, you need to multiply the storage size by 1024 each time.

This means that to convert from MB to Bytes, you need to multiply by 1024 * 1024. Similarly, to convert from GB to Bytes, multiply the number by 1024 * 1024 * 1024.

Converting Bytes to MB (Megabytes) and Vice versa

Let us say you have the following numbers in bytes and want to convert all of them to MB:

To convert from Bytes to MB, use the following formula (for row 2):

=A2 /( 1024 * 1024)

To convert from MB to Bytes, reverse the formula as follows (for row 2):

=A2 * 1024 * 1024

Note, instead of multiplying by 1024 so many times, you could also use the POWER function as follows:

=A2 / POWER(1024,2)

=A2 * POWER(1024,2)

Converting Bytes to GB (Gigabytes) and Vice versa

If you have the same numbers in Bytes and want to convert all of them to GB instead, use the following formula (for row 2):

=A2 /( 1024 * 1024 * 1024)

To convert from GB to Bytes, reverse the formula as follows (for row 2):

=A2 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024

Alternatively, you could use the POWER function as follows:

=A2 / POWER(1024,3)

=A2 * POWER(1024,3)

Converting MB to GB (Megabyte to Gigabyte) and Vice versa

Now consider the case where you have the following numbers in MB instead and want to convert all of them to GB:

In this case, you can use the following formula (for row 2):

=A2 /( 1024)

To convert from GB to MB, reverse the formula as follows (for row 2):

=A2 * 1024

Also read: Convert KG to lbs (Pound) in Excel

Using the CONVERT Function to Convert Bytes to MB or GB

If you don’t want to go through the trouble of memorizing the conversion factors for storage size conversions, you can use the CONVERT function instead.

This function lets you convert numbers in one measurement system or unit to another. So, you can use it to convert Bytes to MB or GB and vice-versa.

The syntax for the CONVERT function is:

=CONVERT (number, from_unit, to_unit)

Here,

number is the numeric value (or cell reference containing the value) that you want to convert.
from_unit is the unit in which number is expressed.
to_unit is the unit to which you want to convert the number.

So if you want to convert the contents of cell A2 from Bytes to Kilobytes, you would use the CONVERT function as follows:

=CONVERT(A2,"byte","kibyte")

Note that there are fixed identifiers for the different units. You can use the following table to obtain the identifiers for your required storage units:

Unit	Identifier
Byte	byte
Kilobyte	kibyte
Megabyte	Mibyte
Gigabyte	Gibyte
Terabyte	Tibyte

Note that the CONVERT function is case-sensitive. So you need to make sure that the strings you use in the second and third arguments of the function are in the correct case.

If the function does not recognize a string, it will return a #N/A error.

It will also return an error if the units in the two parameters are not compatible.

Note: CONVERT is the function in the English version of Excel. For other versions, you will have to look for the equivalent function. For example, in Excel in German, the function is UMWANDELN, and in the Spanish version of Excel, it’s CONVERTIR.