How Much Data? Storage & Sizes
From a single text message to a giant AI model — build a real feel for bytes, gigabytes and terabytes, and work out how much storage phones, games, videos and AI actually need.
- 40
Lesson 1
Bits, Bytes and Beyond
The ladder of data: bit, byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte — and what each one can actually hold.
- 50
Lesson 2
Inside Your Phone: Where Does 128 GB Go?
Open up a typical phone's storage and see exactly what eats the gigabytes — photos, apps, games, messages and the OS itself.
- 50
Lesson 3
Games, Movies and Music: The Heavyweights
Why is Call of Duty bigger than 25,000 songs? Compare the real sizes of games, streaming, downloads and media libraries.
- 60
Lesson 4
How Big Is an AI? Models, Training Data and VRAM
ChatGPT doesn't fit on your phone. Explore why AI models need gigabytes — and their training data needs data centres.
- 60
Lesson 5
From USB Sticks to Data Centres
Scale all the way up: how much the world stores, what a data centre holds, and what an exabyte actually means.
- 80
Lesson 6
Estimate Like an Engineer: The Storage Planning Project
Put it all together: plan real storage for a school, a game studio and an AI startup using back-of-envelope maths.