If $2^{10} \approx$ 1 Thousand (Kilo), what is $2^{20}$?

$2^{20}$ is exactly $1,048,576$, which is approximated as 1 Million (or 1 Mega) in system engineering. This follows the pattern where every increase of 10 in the exponent represents a jump to the next standard SI prefix: $2^{10} \approx$ Kilo, $2^{20} \approx$ Mega, and $2^{30} \approx$ Giga. Using this mental model allows you to quickly estimate that a system with $2^{20}$ users each requiring 1 KB of data will need approximately 1 GB of total storage.