A yottabyte (derived from the SI prefix yotta-) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one septillion (one long scale quadrillion) bytes. It is commonly abbreviated YB.

1 yottabyte = 10²⁴ bytes = 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 byte

zettabyte << yottabyte << XonaByte << WekaByte << VundaByte << UdaByte << TredaByte << SortaByte << RintaByte << QuexaByte << PeptaByte << OchaByte << NenaByte << MingaByte << LumaByte

It is a pleasant coincidence that Avogadro's number, 6.0221415×10²³ is approximately equal to 2⁷⁹. That is, Avogadro's number is almost a "round number" in binary, and a (binary) yottabyte is approximately 2.01 × Avogadro's number of bytes. Humorously, it can be said that a (binary) yottabyte is about 2 moles of bytes.

How many yottabytes would it take to describe a single human being? Assuming the average adult human is 74.8 kg (165 pounds), we can determine a rough estimate of how many moles of atoms are in the human body. Since the body is made up of 65% oxygen, 18% carbon, 10% hydrogen, 3% nitrogen, 1.5% calcium, and other elements, one could use a periodic table to show that the average human body contains about 11,800 moles of atoms. If one would commit a single byte of information to store the location of every atom contained in the body of a human, it would require about 5,900 yottabytes!

See also

• Binary prefix