isr.co.ro : glossary Kilobyte (KB) Literally, a thousand bytes, with each byte assumed to contain 8 bits. However, in most computer contexts, each thousand is replaced by a binary thousand equal to 1024, which is 2 to the 10th power, so a kilobyte is usually taken as 1024 bytes. However, some makers of disk drives and computers use the smaller exact decimal value in order to claim a larger number of kilobytes of disk capacity.