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Ansible in a Minute · Ansible Core ·

Use human_readable to format a byte count

Short answer

Pipe a byte count through human_readable so the message shows a size people can read, such as 10.00 KB.

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Request

print 10240 as human_readable so the message is 10.00 KB

Example

A quick heads-up: Every environment is different. Review and test this example before you run it on systems you care about.

YAML
---
# Prompt: print 10240 as human_readable so the message is 10.00 KB
- name: Print 10.00 KB message
  hosts: all
  gather_facts: false
  tasks:
    - name: Print 10.00 KB message
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "{{ 10240 | human_readable }}"

How it works

human_readable converts a byte count into a string with a unit. 10240 becomes 10.00 KB. Use this filter when people must read the size. Use human_to_bytes when a module needs a raw byte integer.

When to use it

  • Printing disk or file sizes in a recap
  • Showing a quota or image size in KB, MB, or GB

Requirements

  • Ansible: >=2.14

Validation

  • Syntax validated
  • Not execution-tested
  • Last verified 2026-10-02

Notes

Pass unit="G" to force gigabytes. Pass isbits=True to treat the value as bits. human_to_bytes is the inverse filter. It turns 10.00 KB back into 10240.

Reference

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Related guides

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Use human_readable to format a byte count · Level Up Labs