A byte is a unit of digital information typically equal to eight bits. It is the basic unit of storage and memory. A single byte can represent 256 different values, from 0 to 255. One byte holds one character in ASCII, like the letter A or the digit 7. Eight bits is the standard, but historically other sizes existed.

The term was coined by Werner Buchholz at IBM in 1956. It was a play on bite, changed to avoid confusion with bit. The byte became the standard unit for measuring file sizes, memory, and storage. A kilobyte is 1,000 bytes. A megabyte is 1,000,000. A gigabyte is 1,000,000,000.

Common byte units

• Byte: 8 bits
• Kilobyte: 1,000 bytes
• Megabyte: 1,000,000 bytes
• Gigabyte: 1,000,000,000 bytes
• Terabyte: 1,000,000,000,000 bytes

Bytes are everywhere. A text message is a few hundred bytes. A photo is a few megabytes. A movie is a few gigabytes. A data center stores petabytes. The byte is the unit we use to measure the digital world. It is small but essential.