Text to Binary Converter
Translate text into binary code, or paste binary to read it as text.
About this tool
Encodes text as UTF-8 and shows each byte as 8 binary digits, separated by spaces. Pasting groups of 0s and 1s decodes them back to text. Emoji and accented letters use more than one byte.
Computers store every letter as a number, and every number as bits: ones and zeros. This converter shows that layer. Type text to see it as binary, one 8-bit byte per character for plain English letters, or paste a string of binary bytes to read the message it holds. It handles accented letters and emoji too, which take more than one byte in UTF-8.
How to use the Text to Binary Converter
- Type or paste text, or binary bytes separated by spaces.
- The direction is detected for you.
- Read the result and its size in bytes.
- Copy the result.
Converting Hi!
H is character code 72, which is 01001000 in binary; i is 105, or 01101001; and ! is 33, or 00100001. So Hi! becomes 01001000 01101001 00100001, three bytes. Pasting those three groups back in returns Hi!. The letter é takes two bytes in UTF-8: 11000011 10101001.
Bits, bytes and character encodings
A bit is a single 0 or 1, and a byte is 8 bits, which can represent 256 different values from 00000000 to 11111111. Text encodings map characters to numbers. ASCII covers the basic English letters, digits and punctuation in values 0 to 127, so each fits in one byte. UTF-8, the encoding used by almost the whole web, keeps ASCII as single bytes and uses two to four bytes for other characters, such as accented letters, Arabic and Chinese script and emoji. To read binary yourself, give each position a value of 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 and 1 from left to right and add the values where there is a 1: 01001000 is 64 + 8 = 72, the letter H.
Frequently asked questions
How do I read binary as text?
Split it into 8-digit groups, convert each to a number and look the number up in the ASCII or UTF-8 table, or paste it here.
Why does an emoji give four bytes?
UTF-8 uses up to four bytes for characters outside the basic range, and most emoji need all four.
Is binary a form of encryption?
No. It is just another way of writing the same numbers, and anyone can convert it back.
What if my binary has no spaces?
Add a space every 8 digits so each byte is separate, then paste it in.