Binary Text Translator

Convert text to binary or hex bytes and decode it back

Direction:
Encoding:

Text Input

Binary bytes Output

Binary bytes will appear here

About

Translate text to space-separated binary or hex bytes (UTF-8) and decode them back. Useful for debugging encodings and learning how characters map to bytes. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

    Examples

    Encode 'Hello' to binary

    Input
    text: Hello
    Output
    01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111
(Space-separated 8-bit binary tokens)

    Each character's UTF-8 code point is shown as an 8-bit binary value, space-separated. H = 72 = 01001000.

    Decode hex bytes to text

    Input
    48 65 6c 6c 6f
    Output
    Hello

    Each 2-digit hex token maps to a byte value; the full sequence is decoded as UTF-8 to produce 'Hello'.

    About this tool

    The Binary/Text Translator encodes text as space-separated binary or hexadecimal bytes using UTF-8 encoding (TextEncoder), and decodes binary or hex tokens back to readable text using TextDecoder. It is the fastest way to manually convert between human-readable text and the raw byte representation that underpins most wire protocols and file formats.

    In encode mode, each character's UTF-8 code point is shown as an 8-bit binary or 2-digit hex value, space-separated. In decode mode, each token is validated to be in the range 0–255 (binary) or a valid 2-digit hex value, and the whole byte sequence is validated as UTF-8 before being decoded.

    How to use

    1. Choose a direction

      Pick Encode to convert text to binary or hex, or Decode to go the other way.

    2. Paste your input

      For encode, type or paste text. For decode, paste space-separated binary tokens (8 bits each) or hex values (2 digits each).

    3. Copy the result

      Click Copy to grab the encoded or decoded output. Invalid tokens in decode mode are highlighted with an error.

    Use cases

    Reading hex dumps from a network capture

    Paste a hex dump from Wireshark or a debugger and decode it to see the actual ASCII or UTF-8 string contents.

    Creating a binary payload for a wire protocol

    Encode a short text string as hex bytes to paste into a hex editor or a test tool that expects raw byte input.

    Checking byte values in a string

    Encode a string to binary or hex to inspect the exact UTF-8 encoding, useful for debugging encoding issues.

    Common mistakes

    Mistake:Decoding multi-byte UTF-8 characters as individual bytes.

    Fix:Characters like 'é' or '中' occupy multiple bytes in UTF-8. Each byte must be present in the input; decoding only part of a multi-byte character produces a UTF-8 validation error.

    Mistake:Confusing binary and hex tokens.

    Fix:Binary tokens are 8 bits: '01100001'. Hex tokens are 2 hex digits: '61'. Mixing the two in the same input causes decode errors.

    Mistake:Forgetting spaces between tokens.

    Fix:The decoder splits on whitespace, so '0100100001100101' (no spaces) is read as a single 16-bit token that exceeds the 0–255 range. Always separate tokens with a space.

    Frequently asked questions

    Related guides

    How Text Becomes Bytes: Binary, Hex, and UTF-8 Explained

    What happens when you save a text file, how UTF-8 encodes characters, and why the same string can be different lengths in binary.

    References & standards

    Related tools

    TOML Validator

    Validate TOML and re-emit it as clean, indented JSON

    TOML to JSON Converter

    Convert TOML to JSON and JSON to TOML in either direction

    JSON Lines Converter

    Convert JSON Lines (NDJSON) to a JSON array and back

    CSV to SQL Converter

    Generate SQL INSERT statements from CSV data

    JSON Schema Validator

    Validate a JSON document against a JSON Schema

    CSV to Markdown Converter

    Convert CSV to a Markdown table and Markdown tables back to CSV