Digital information

An exabyte archive

An exabyte archive is a digital storage system capable of holding extremely large datasets, often used by major organisations or data centres.

How big is it?

1 EB of data

Data · example

Scale illustration of An exabyte archive, calibrated to its data measurement.
The marked data represents 1 EB.

A little perspective

About 4.65 times the theoretical bytes per gram of DNA storage theoretical capacity per gram.

DNA storage theoretical capacity per gram: DNA storage theoretical capacity per gram is the maximum amount of digital information that can be encoded in one gram of DNA under ideal conditions.

Linear measure
BYTES OF DATA1 EB215 PB
02
DNA storage theoretical capacity per gram215 PBTheoretical bytes per gram
Bar length represents bytes. The physical sizes of devices are schematic; encoding and compression affect file sizes.
Measurements, assumptions & sources +

An exabyte archive

A defined 1 EB decimal data amount; no claim about a named service.

Defined examples — our methodology

The marked data is calibrated. Unmeasured illustration details are representative.

DNA storage theoretical capacity per gram

A theoretical information density of about 215 petabytes per gram of DNA under an idealised encoding model. Real systems require addressing, error correction, redundancy, containers and retrieval machinery, reducing practical density.

Harvard Wyss Institute — DNA data storage

The marked theoretical bytes per gram is calibrated. Unmeasured illustration details are representative.

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Why this measurement?

Why we use 1 EB

For comparison, this page uses data. This is labelled example: an explicit comparison model rather than a claim that every example has the same value.

A defined 1 EB decimal data amount; no claim about a named service.

The identifying illustration and the numerical comparison remain separate. How calibrated comparisons work →

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Recorded properties

An exabyte archive dimensions and measurements

PropertySelected valueRecorded rangeBasis
1 EBNot recordedexample

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