In 1 kilowatts there are 1.00000e-12 petawatts. Meanwhile in 1 petawatts there are 1,000,000,000,000 kilowatts. Keep reading to learn more about each unit of measure and how they are calculated. Or just use the Petawatts to Kilowatts calculator above to convert any number.
* Values rounded to 6 decimal places for readability
To convert kilowatts (kW) to petawatts (PW), use the metric prefix sizes: kilo = 10³ and peta = 10¹⁵. That means 1 PW = 10¹² kW, so 1 kW = 10⁻¹² PW.
Conversion formula (kW to PW):
PW = kW ÷ 1,000,000,000,000 (10¹²)
Quick examples:
Use this kilowatt to petawatt conversion when you need to express smaller power values (kW) in very large units (PW).
A kilowatt is a small unit of power used for everyday loads, like home devices. A petawatt is an extremely large unit of power used in high-end science and large-scale energy talk. Both measure power, which is the rate of energy use or production.
Use this conversion:
To convert kW to PW, multiply the kilowatt value by 10⁻¹².
Use the reverse conversion:
To convert PW to kW, multiply the petawatt value by 10¹².
The formula is:
Both forms give the same result.
The formula is:
This works because a petawatt contains one trillion kilowatts.
There are:
That is one trillionth of a petawatt.
There are:
That is one trillion kilowatts.
Kilowatts show up in daily life. Here are a few typical uses:
Exact values vary by model and settings.
Petawatts are not used for normal household or grid items. You may see them in:
These are often peak values, not steady power over long times.
The gap is huge because power can range from small devices to extreme lab equipment. The step from kW to PW is 12 powers of ten, which is a factor of 1,000,000,000,000.
They measure power, not energy. Power is the rate of doing work or using energy. Energy uses other units, such as:
No. kW is power. kWh is energy.
Example: a 2 kW heater running for 3 hours uses 6 kWh.
A watt (W) is a basic unit of power equal to 1 joule per second. The prefixes scale it:
This works because 1 PW = 10¹² kW.
Use powers of ten:
Scientific notation helps avoid long strings of zeros.
Power grids are large, but they are usually discussed in megawatts (MW), gigawatts (GW), or sometimes terawatts (TW). Petawatts (PW) are far beyond normal grid scales.
Common steps include:
This ladder makes large conversions easier to track.
Common errors include:
Writing the conversion as kW × 10⁻¹² helps reduce errors.
The Calculate Box tool to convert kilowatts to petawatts uses the open source script Convert.js to convert units of measurement. To use this tool, simply type a kilowatts value in the box and have it instantly converted to petawatts.