Each byte can store how many characters?

A byte is a fundamental unit of digital information storage in computing and telecommunications. Each byte consists of 8 bits, and it is traditionally used to encode a single character of text in most encoding systems, such as ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). In ASCII, each character, such as a letter, number, or punctuation mark, is represented by a unique 7-bit binary number, but it often fits within the 8 bits of a byte, allowing for one character to be stored.

While other encoding systems, like UTF-8, can represent characters that require more than one byte, the question specifies what is typically stored in a standard context. Hence, it is accurate to state that each byte can store one character in common encoding systems. This principle is foundational in understanding data representation in computer systems.