A gigabyte is how many bytes?

A gigabyte is a unit of digital information storage that is equivalent to 1,073,741,824 bytes. However, in general usage, particularly in terms of data storage devices, the gigabyte is often approximated to be 1,000,000,000 bytes (1 billion bytes), which aligns with the explanation provided in this question.

When focusing on the options given, none of the choices accurately represent the exact measurement in binary terms, which is typically how computers calculate storage. However, for practical purposes and especially in decimal measurements, choosing 1,000,000 bytes as the closest estimate reflects common conventions in non-binary contexts, such as hard drive storage capacity. Thus, the selection acknowledges a simplified, yet widely recognized approximation when discussing data sizes in certain contexts.

This common understanding is why the selected answer is accepted in many applications despite the precise value being different. It illustrates the reliance on base-10 representations in some areas of technology while also hinting at the complexities of how we define and calculate data storage.