Text to Binary Converter
Convert text to binary, and see the same bytes in hex, octal, and decimal at once. Paste any base to decode it back to text, live in your browser.
- Free, no account
- No watermark
- No usage limit
About the Text to Binary
Most text to binary converters do one thing: you type a word and get ones and zeros back. Getting those same bytes in hex usually means opening another converter in another tab, and octal a third. This one drops that whole routine and shows binary, hexadecimal, octal, and decimal together, all from the same text, all live. Type Hi and you get 01001000 01101001, 48 69, 110 151, and 72 105 on screen at the same moment. And it runs both directions from any of them. Paste hex into the hex box and your text comes back, with the other three bases filled in beside it. Nothing you type leaves your browser, so you can convert something private without it touching a server.
How to use
- Text to numbers: type or paste into the Text box. Binary, hex, octal, and decimal all fill in as you type.
- Numbers back to text: paste your values into whichever base you have. Binary, hex, octal, or decimal, it decodes to text and updates the other three.
- Pick a separator (space, new line, or none) to set how the binary and hex are grouped.
- Copy any field with its Copy button, or grab a Share link that carries your exact result and settings.
It updates on every keystroke, and it keeps working with the connection dropped once the page has loaded.
One box, every base
The five fields are wired together. Change any one and the rest follow, the same way a unit converter shows a distance in feet and meters at once. Type text and read off the binary, or paste binary and read the hex. Pasting one base and reading another makes it a base to base converter for byte streams too, not just a text encoder. Handed a decimal dump like 72 105 and no idea what it says? Drop it in the decimal box and you get Hi plus its binary and hex, no separate lookup.
One honest quirk is worth knowing about. Binary and hex can run together with no gaps because each byte is a fixed width, eight bits or two hex digits, so a decoder always knows where one byte ends, which is something octal and decimal cannot offer. A solid run like 72105 could be chopped a dozen ways, so those two always keep a space between bytes even when you set the separator to None. When you pick None, the binary and hex collapse into one unbroken stream and octal and decimal stay spaced. It looks inconsistent, but it is the only way the numbers still decode back cleanly.
What a byte is, and why hex tags along
A single 0 or 1 is a bit, one switch, on or off. Line up eight of them and you have a byte, and a byte holds 256 patterns, 00000000 through 11111111, which is 0 to 255 in plain decimal. That 256 is why so many limits in computing stop at 255, like a color channel, a classic character code, or an unsigned 8-bit number.
Binary shows you all eight switches. The other bases are just shorter ways to write the same byte:
- Hex is the programmer's shorthand. Two hex digits cover exactly one byte, so a byte is always a tidy pair like
48. That clean fit is why memory addresses, color codes (#48A0FF), and byte dumps are written in hex. - Octal is the older shorthand, three digits per byte. You still meet it in file permissions,
chmod 755being the famous one. - Decimal is simply the number each byte stands for.
His 72. No conversion in your head, just the value.
It is the same byte written four ways, so pick whichever one your task speaks in.
There is one thing this converter does that a lot of the free ones fudge: it encodes with UTF-8, the encoding the whole modern web runs on. A plain letter like A is a single byte and matches old ASCII exactly. But an accented é, a Japanese character, or an emoji becomes the real two, three, or four byte sequence a genuine file or network packet would carry. A tool that only handles A to Z is converting the easy half of text and quietly mangling the rest, while this one does not pretend an emoji is one byte.
Where people actually reach for it
Students and the curious reach for it most of all. A computer science class hits binary in week one, and nothing makes it real faster than watching your own name turn into bytes, then flipping it to hex and seeing the exact same bytes written far shorter.
Puzzle and CTF makers lean on it too. A string of ones and zeros that decodes to the next clue is a genre staple in escape rooms and capture-the-flag challenges, and having binary, hex, and decimal side by side means you can build or crack a puzzle in whatever base it was set in.
And it is a real help when text goes garbled. When accented characters turn into é-style mojibake, the cause is almost always an encoding mismatch, and seeing the raw UTF-8 bytes of a character, in binary or hex, tells you what a system is truly storing versus what it is showing you.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert text to hex instead of binary?
Just type your text and read the Hexadecimal box. It fills in at the same time as binary, no mode to switch. Hi gives you 48 69, where 48 is the byte for H and 69 is the byte for i. If you want it as a solid string like 4869, set the separator to None. To go the other way, paste hex into that box and your text appears in the Text field.
Can I paste hex, octal, or decimal and get the text back?
Yes, and it is why the fields are connected in the first place. Whatever base you have, paste it into its own box and the Text field decodes it, with the remaining bases filled in beside it. So it also converts base to base: paste binary to read the hex, paste decimal to read the octal, and so on. You never have to pick a direction.
Why do octal and decimal keep spaces even when I choose None?
Because they have to. A byte in binary is always eight digits and in hex always two, so those can safely run together and still be split back apart. Both octal and decimal write a byte as anywhere from one to three digits, so a run like 110151 has no clear boundaries in it. Forcing them together would make them impossible to decode, so the tool always spaces those two. None only tightens up binary and hex.
Why is my emoji so many more digits than a letter?
Because it genuinely is bigger in bytes. ASCII characters fit in one byte, so a letter is 8 bits or 2 hex digits. Everything Unicode added on top, accents, non-Latin scripts, symbols, emoji, has numbers too large for one byte, so UTF-8 spends two to four bytes on them. A four byte emoji is 32 bits, or 8 hex digits. It is the same reason an emoji-heavy message can eat through a character limit faster than you would guess.
What is the difference between this and the hex to text tool?
This is a five-way workbench built around binary, showing every base together and decoding from any of them, which is handy when you are jumping between encodings or teaching how they relate. If your whole job is hex and nothing else, the dedicated Hex to Text tool is a tighter fit, one input, one output, no extra fields to look past, and the UTF-8 handling is identical either way.
Why did my binary or hex fail to decode?
A few plain reasons, and the tool names each one instead of guessing. Binary has to be a whole number of bytes, so the total bits must divide by 8, and if not it tells you how many are left dangling. Hex needs an even count of digits, since each byte is a pair. Octal and decimal reject any value above 255, because a byte cannot hold more than that. Fix the flagged spot and it decodes.
Is any of my text sent to a server?
No. Every conversion runs in your browser using its built-in encoder and decoder. There is no upload, no request, and nothing is logged or stored. You can watch the network stay silent, and the tool keeps converting with your connection off. When you close or refresh the tab, whatever you typed is gone for good.