Text to Binary Converter

Convert text to binary, octal, decimal or hexadecimal — or paste any of those in to get text back. Both sides update as you type, and everything runs in your browser.

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About this converter

Computers store every character as one or more bytes, and each byte is just a number from 0 to 255. This tool takes the text you type, looks up the byte values behind it using UTF-8 encoding, and displays those numbers in binary, octal, decimal or hexadecimal. It works the other way too — paste in a string of binary, hex or other byte values and it's decoded straight back into readable text.

Pick a format

Binary is the classic 1s and 0s, but the same byte values can be shown as octal, decimal or hexadecimal. Switching the format re-renders the existing bytes instantly, so you can compare representations without retyping anything.

Control the layout

Choose how bytes are separated — spaces, commas, new lines, or packed together with no separator at all — and whether each byte is padded to a fixed width, like 01001000 instead of 1001000.

See the bytes

The byte breakdown below the converter shows each character alongside its decimal value, with the binary, octal and hex forms available on hover — handy for spotting exactly which byte a character maps to.

Tips for decoding binary reliably

  • If you're pasting binary, octal or hex you got from somewhere else, a separator (spaces work well) helps this tool split it into bytes correctly.
  • With no separator at all, bytes need to be padded to a fixed width so they can be split evenly — turn on "Pad each byte to fixed width" first.
  • Emoji and accented characters take more than one byte each in UTF-8, so their binary form will be longer than you might expect.
  • Values above 255 aren't valid single bytes and will be flagged rather than silently dropped.

Frequently asked questions

Does this handle emoji and non-English text?

Yes. Text is encoded as UTF-8, the same encoding used across the modern web, so accented letters, non-Latin scripts and emoji all convert correctly — they just take up more than one byte per character.

What's the difference between binary, octal, decimal and hex here?

They're the same underlying byte values, just written in different number bases. Binary uses digits 0–1, octal 0–7, decimal 0–9, and hexadecimal 0–9 and a–f. A capital "A", for example, is 01000001 in binary, 101 in octal, 65 in decimal, and 41 in hex.

Why does decoding sometimes fail?

Usually because a value is out of range for a single byte (over 255), contains a character that doesn't belong to the selected format, or is unpadded with no separator so it can't be split into even-sized chunks. The message under the boxes explains which one applies.

Is my text uploaded anywhere?

No. The conversion happens entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server or stored.