Text to Binary Translator

Computers do not store letters. They store numbers, and every number is a run of ones and zeros called binary. When you type the letter A, your computer looks up its character code, 65, and writes it as eight bits: 01000001. This binary translator does that lookup for every character, both directions, so you can turn text into binary and read binary back into text.

How text to binary conversion works

Each character is first encoded to bytes with UTF-8, the same encoding the web runs on, and each byte becomes eight binary digits. Plain English letters are one byte, so eight bits each. Accented letters and symbols take two or three bytes, and a single emoji can be four bytes, which is why an emoji shows up as 32 bits on its own. The tool converts live as you type and lines the bytes up so the pattern is easy to read.

Binary to text, and English back again

Switch the direction, or press swap, and the tool reads each group of eight bits back into the character it stands for. Paste a string of ones and zeros, with or without spaces, and you get the original text. This is the half people mean when they search for a binary translator to English, and it works with the same UTF-8 rules, so emoji and accented text come back intact.

A quick text to binary reference

Here are a few common characters and their 8-bit binary, so you can spot-check a conversion by hand.

Fixing common binary errors

Two things trip people up when decoding. First, binary text must be a multiple of eight bits, since every character is one or more whole bytes. If you paste 5 or 13 bits, the tool tells you the length is off instead of guessing. Second, binary only contains 0 and 1, so any stray letters break it, though spaces and line breaks between bytes are fine and simply ignored. Everything runs in your browser, so nothing you paste is uploaded.