In 1 gigawatts there are 0.00000100000 petawatts. Meanwhile in 1 petawatts there are 1,000,000 gigawatts. Keep reading to learn more about each unit of measure and how they are calculated. Or just use the Petawatts to Gigawatts calculator above to convert any number.
* Values rounded to 6 decimal places for readability
To convert gigawatts (GW) to petawatts (PW), use the SI prefix scale.
Since 10⁹ ÷ 10¹⁵ = 10⁻⁶, the conversion is:
Tip: When converting gigawatts to petawatts, move the decimal 6 places left.
A gigawatt (GW) is a unit of power equal to 1 billion watts (1,000,000,000 W). Power measures how fast energy is used or produced at a moment in time. Large power plants and whole electric grids often use gigawatts.
A petawatt (PW) is a unit of power equal to 1 quadrillion watts (1,000,000,000,000,000 W). It’s far larger than the power levels used in everyday electricity systems. Petawatts often show up in high-energy science, like very powerful laser pulses.
To convert gigawatts to petawatts, divide by 1,000,000.
To convert petawatts to gigawatts, multiply by 1,000,000.
These units sit far apart on the metric scale.
A gigawatt is 10^9 watts, while a petawatt is 10^15 watts. That gap is 10^6, so it takes one million gigawatts to equal one petawatt.
Watts measure power, which is the rate of energy use or output. Watt-hours (Wh) measure energy, which is power over time.
1 GW is a huge amount of power. It can match the output of a large power station under the right conditions. It can also describe the scale of electricity demand for a large city, though real use changes by time of day and season.
Petawatts are mostly used in science and research. A common example is peak power in short laser pulses. The power can reach petawatt levels for a tiny fraction of a second.
Not as steady electrical output. National grids usually operate in gigawatts or a few terawatts (TW). Petawatt levels are far beyond typical grid scale.
The usual steps move by 1,000 each time:
Peak power is the highest power reached at any instant. With lasers, the peak can be massive because the energy comes out in a very short pulse. The average power over time can be much lower.
No. Gigawatts and petawatts measure power in any form. That includes electrical power, mechanical power, and radiant power (like light). The unit stays the same; only the source changes.
Move the decimal point six places to the left when converting GW to PW.
Example: 750,000 GW becomes 0.75 PW.
For PW to GW, move it six places to the right.
Common errors include:
The Calculate Box tool to convert gigawatts to petawatts uses the open source script Convert.js to convert units of measurement. To use this tool, simply type a gigawatts value in the box and have it instantly converted to petawatts.