Text to Binary Converter
This text to binary converter shows the bits behind your text and turns binary back into readable text. The text is encoded as UTF-8 first, which is what makes it correct for every alphabet rather than only for English: a plain ASCII letter is one byte, an accented letter is two, most CJK characters are three, and an emoji is four. Tools that convert character by character using the older approach produce wrong answers for all of those. You can switch to code points instead of bytes when you care about characters rather than storage, and choose the separator so the output matches whatever format you are pasting into.
How it works
Converts text to its binary representation and back. The text is encoded as UTF-8 first, so every character in every alphabet is handled: an accented letter is two bytes, most CJK characters are three, and an emoji is four.
Switching to code points shows one number per character rather than per byte, which is the right view when you care about characters rather than storage.
Everything runs in your browser — nothing you paste is sent to a server.
Why UTF-8 matters here
The naive way to convert text to binary is to take each character's numeric value and write it as eight bits. That works for English and breaks for everything else, because a character above 255 does not fit in a byte.
Encoding as UTF-8 first is what makes the conversion correct everywhere:
| Character | Bytes | Bits |
|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | 8 |
| é | 2 | 16 |
| 日 | 3 | 24 |
| 🌍 | 4 | 32 |
Bytes or code points
Byte mode shows how the text is stored. Code point mode shows one number per character, which is the right view when you are reasoning about the characters themselves rather than about a file's size on disk.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert text to binary?
Paste your text into the left panel with the direction set to binary. Each byte appears as eight bits, separated by spaces.
Why is one character sometimes several bytes?
Because the text is encoded as UTF-8. ASCII characters take one byte, accented letters two, most CJK characters three and emoji four — so an emoji produces 32 bits, not 8.
What is the difference between bytes and code points?
A code point is the number Unicode assigns to a character; bytes are how that number is stored. One code point can be one to four bytes. Switch modes depending on whether you care about characters or storage.
Can I use a different separator?
Yes. Change the separator field to a comma, nothing at all, or any text you like — the decoder accepts spaces, commas and semicolons regardless.
Why does my binary fail to decode?
Usually because a byte is missing or the groups are misaligned. Every byte needs exactly eight bits; if the total is not a multiple of eight, something was truncated.
Is my text uploaded?
No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser.
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