Human Readable Units
Paste a raw byte count, a duration or a big number and read it the way people write it — 1.5 GB, 2m 3s, 1.2M. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
About this tool
Human Readable Units converts raw magnitudes into the unit strings people expect in docs, dashboards and support tickets. Paste a byte count such as 1500000000, a duration such as 123, or a plain count such as 1200000, then choose whether the value means data size, elapsed time or a large number.
Worked examples:
1500000000withkind=bytesreturns1.5 GB.1073741824withkind=bytesandbase=binary-iecreturns1 GiB.11722000withkind=duration,input_unit=millisecondandmax_units=3returns3h 15m 22s.1200000withkind=numberreturns1.2M.
Use base to pick decimal bytes (kB, MB, GB), IEC binary bytes (KiB, MiB, GiB) or Windows-style binary labels (KB, MB, GB). Use style for short, long or narrow output, and turn on detail=breakdown when you need exact bytes, bits, clock time, ISO 8601 duration or scientific notation alongside the formatted value.
Limits and edge cases: values must parse as finite numbers after digit separators such as commas, spaces and underscores are removed. The converted magnitude is capped at 1e21 base units, precision is limited to 0 through 6, and max_units is limited to 1 through 7. Duration output truncates to the requested segment count instead of rounding up, so 3661 seconds with the default two segments is 1h 1m.
FAQ
Should I choose decimal or binary bytes?
Choose decimal for storage-device and network-style sizes where 1 kB = 1000 B. Choose binary IEC when you need the unambiguous computer-memory scale where 1 KiB = 1024 B. Binary JEDEC keeps the 1024 divisor but uses KB, MB and GB labels for compatibility with older tools and Windows-style displays.
Can I paste grouped numbers or scientific notation?
Yes. The parser accepts plain digits, commas, underscores, spaces and scientific notation. For example, 1,500,000,000, 1_500_000_000 and 1.5e9 all represent the same value.
Why does a duration drop the last seconds?
The max_units setting controls how many non-zero segments are shown. With the default of two, 3661 seconds becomes 1h 1m; set max_units=3 to include 1s as well. The tool truncates extra segments instead of rounding so timers and logs do not overstate elapsed time.
What does breakdown output include?
For byte counts, breakdown mode shows the primary value, exact bytes, decimal bytes, binary bytes and bits. For durations it adds exact seconds, short and long text, HH:MM:SS clock form and ISO 8601. For plain numbers it includes exact, short, long and scientific notation.
Developer & Automation Access
Run it from the terminal
Same engine as this page, headless — via the gizza CLI:
gizza tool human-readable-units "1500000000"New to the CLI? Get gizza →
Open it by URL
Pre-fill and auto-run this tool with query parameters — the names match the API/CLI:
https://gizza.ai/tools/human-readable-units/?value=1500000000&kind=bytes&input_unit=auto&base=decimal&style=short&precision=1&max_units=2&trim_zeros=true&detail=valueMachine-readable descriptor: tool.json — title + parameters JSON Schema for agents.