How to use the binary, hex and ascii text translator
- Choose Text to numbers to turn words into byte values, or Numbers to text to read byte values back as words.
- Pick the number system: binary, hexadecimal, decimal or octal.
- Type or paste your text. The result appears as you type. When you are decoding, separate the bytes with spaces, commas or new lines, or paste binary and hex as one run of digits.
- Choose a separator and options such as uppercase hex or prefixes like 0x, then press Copy result. Use result as input flips the direction so you can check the round trip.
How text becomes bytes
Computers store text as numbers. This tool encodes your text as UTF-8, the encoding used on most of the web, and then writes each byte in the system you pick. Plain English letters, digits and punctuation are in the ASCII range, so each takes exactly one byte. For example H is byte 72, which is 01001000 in binary and 48 in hexadecimal.
Characters outside ASCII take two to four bytes. The letter é is the two bytes 11000011 and 10101001 (hex c3 a9), the euro sign is three bytes and an emoji is four. The page tells you when your text has characters like these, so a longer result is not a surprise. See the ASCII table for the 128 basic codes.
Reading numbers back into text
When you decode, each item must be a whole number from 0 to 255 in the chosen system, because a byte holds 8 bits. Binary bytes are usually written with eight digits, hexadecimal bytes with two, and octal bytes with up to three. A run of digits with no separators is split into groups of 8 binary digits or 2 hex digits, so its length has to be a multiple of that.
After the bytes are read, they must form valid UTF-8 text. If they do not, for example when a multi-byte character is cut short, the tool says so instead of showing garbled symbols. Prefixes such as 0x, 0b and 0o and a backslash x are ignored. To convert whole numbers between systems rather than text, use the number base converter.
What this is and is not
Binary here is a way of writing numbers, not encryption. Anyone can turn it back into text, so do not use it to hide anything. If you want another playful encoding, try the Morse code translator or the Base64 encoder. Two valued logic is the other place binary shows up, and the truth table generator lists every true and false combination of a logic expression. Everything runs in your browser and nothing you type is uploaded.
Assumptions and limits
- Text is encoded and decoded as UTF-8. Other encodings such as UTF-16 or Windows-1252 give different bytes for non-ASCII characters.
- Each number is one byte, from 0 to 255. Larger values are rejected rather than split.
- Input is limited to 100,000 characters so the page stays responsive.
- The result is a representation of the text, not a secret. It is not encryption or compression.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert text to binary?
Choose Text to numbers and Binary, then type the text. Each character becomes one or more bytes, and each byte is shown as 8 binary digits. For example the letter A is byte 65, which is 01000001.
Why does an emoji or an accented letter give more than one byte?
Only the first 128 characters (ASCII) fit in one byte in UTF-8. Accented letters use two bytes, many symbols use three and emoji use four. The converter shows every byte so you can see the full encoding.
Can I paste binary with no spaces?
Yes, as long as the number of digits is a multiple of 8. The tool splits the run into groups of 8 digits. If the length is not a multiple of 8, it tells you how many digits you have so you can find the missing digit.
What does it mean when the tool says the bytes are not valid UTF-8?
Some byte patterns cannot be text in UTF-8, for example a byte that starts a two byte character but has no partner. Check that you copied every byte and chose the right number system.