In 1 gigawatts there are 1,000,000,000 watts. Meanwhile in 1 watts there are 1.00000e-9 gigawatts. Keep reading to learn more about each unit of measure and how they are calculated. Or just use the Watts to Gigawatts calculator above to convert any number.
* Values rounded to 6 decimal places for readability
To convert gigawatts (GW) to watts (W), use this rule:
Conversion formula
Quick examples
Tip: Moving from GW to W means multiplying by 10⁹, so the watt value gets much larger.
1 gigawatt (GW) equals 1,000,000,000 watts (W).
That’s 10^9 watts.
Multiply the gigawatt value by 1,000,000,000.
Formula: W = GW × 1,000,000,000
0.5 GW equals 500,000,000 W.
You get it by multiplying 0.5 × 1,000,000,000.
2 GW equals 2,000,000,000 W.
You get it by multiplying 2 × 1,000,000,000.
Watts are the smaller unit. Gigawatts are much larger.
A gigawatt is one billion watts.
A gigawatt measures power. Power is the rate energy is used or made.
It’s common for large power plants and electric grid totals.
The metric prefix giga- means 10^9.
That sets 1 GW equal to 10^9 W.
Yes, the unit conversion stays the same.
1 GW always equals 1,000,000,000 W for AC or DC.
Move from GW to W by multiplying by 10^9.
Example: 3.2 GW = 3.2 × 10^9 W
Watts measure power at a moment in time.
Watt-hours (Wh) measure energy used over time.
If a device uses 1,000 W for 1 hour, that’s 1,000 Wh (or 1 kWh).
All are power units, just different sizes:
Take the gigawatt number and add nine zeros.
Example: 7 GW = 7,000,000,000 W
The Calculate Box tool to convert gigawatts to watts 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 watts.