Binary to text converter
Convert ASCII or UTF-8 text into binary (groups of 8 bits) or convert a sequence of binary digits back into text.
What this tool does
Text is stored in memory as bytes. Each byte is eight bits — eight ones-and-zeros. This tool exposes that representation: type any text and see its underlying binary form, or paste a string of binary digits and see what text it decodes to.
UTF-8 vs ASCII
Plain ASCII characters (A–Z, a–z, 0–9, common punctuation) fit in a single byte each — values 0 through 127. Non-ASCII characters (ü, ñ, 中, 🎉) are encoded as two, three, or four bytes per character in UTF-8. The tool uses UTF-8 throughout, so binary roundtrips of any input — including emoji — are correct.
Example
The single character A in UTF-8 is one byte with binary value 01000001. The string Hi is two bytes: 01001000 01101001. The accented character ü is two bytes in UTF-8: 11000011 10111100.
Why would you ever need this?
Rarely. Common reasons:
- Teaching or learning about how computers represent text.
- Puzzles and capture-the-flag challenges that hide a message in a binary string.
- Debugging a corrupted byte stream where you suspect a single-bit flip.
- Embedded systems work where data is sent over a wire as a literal bit pattern.
Separator
When converting text to binary, you can choose how the resulting bytes are separated. When going the other way, the tool accepts any input — non-binary characters are stripped before decoding.
Privacy
The conversion happens in your browser.