diff --git a/gallery_dl/util.py b/gallery_dl/util.py
index 03c7751b..3cf3000c 100644
--- a/gallery_dl/util.py
+++ b/gallery_dl/util.py
@@ -84,6 +84,22 @@ def bdecode(data, alphabet="0123456789"):
     return num
 
 
+def parse_bytes(value, suffixes="bkmgtp"):
+    """Convert a bytes-amount ("500k", "2.5M", ...) to int"""
+    last = value[-1].lower()
+
+    if last in suffixes:
+        mul = 1024 ** suffixes.index(last)
+        value = value[:-1]
+    else:
+        mul = 1
+
+    try:
+        return round(float(value) * mul)
+    except ValueError:
+        return 0
+
+
 def combine_dict(a, b):
     """Recursively combine the contents of b into a"""
     for key, value in b.items():
diff --git a/test/test_util.py b/test/test_util.py
index 690bd288..137a0f8d 100644
--- a/test/test_util.py
+++ b/test/test_util.py
@@ -189,6 +189,22 @@ class TestOther(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(util.bdecode("1111011", "01"), 123)
         self.assertEqual(util.bdecode("AAAABAA", "BA"), 123)
 
+    def test_parse_bytes(self):
+        self.assertEqual(util.parse_bytes("50"), 50)
+        self.assertEqual(util.parse_bytes("50k"), 50 * 1024**1)
+        self.assertEqual(util.parse_bytes("50m"), 50 * 1024**2)
+        self.assertEqual(util.parse_bytes("50g"), 50 * 1024**3)
+        self.assertEqual(util.parse_bytes("50t"), 50 * 1024**4)
+        self.assertEqual(util.parse_bytes("50p"), 50 * 1024**5)
+
+        self.assertEqual(util.parse_bytes("123.456"), 123)
+        self.assertEqual(util.parse_bytes("123.567"), 124)
+        self.assertEqual(util.parse_bytes("0.5M"), round(0.5 * 1024**2))
+
+        self.assertEqual(util.parse_bytes("NaN"), 0)
+        self.assertEqual(util.parse_bytes("invalid"), 0)
+        self.assertEqual(util.parse_bytes(" 123 kb "), 0)
+
     def test_combine_dict(self):
         self.assertEqual(
             util.combine_dict({}, {}),