Handitab

Binary Translator

Convert text to binary code, showing each UTF-8 byte as eight bits separated by spaces, or switch modes to translate binary back to text.

About Binary Translator

Binary code writes each byte as eight bits (0 or 1), and hexadecimal writes the same byte as two base-16 digits. This tool encodes text as UTF-8, so an ASCII letter takes one byte and other characters take two to four. When decoding, everything except valid digits is stripped, and the digit count must be a multiple of 8 for binary or of 2 for hexadecimal.

Also known as: Text to Binary Converter.

How to use Binary Translator

  1. Type or paste into the "Input text" box, or press "Use example" to try it with sample data.
  2. Set "Conversion" if the defaults do not fit.
  3. The result appears below and updates as you type.
  4. Copy the result with the copy button, or download it as a file where that is offered.

Questions about Binary Translator

How do you write a letter in binary?

Look up the character code and write it in base 2 with eight digits. Capital A is code 65, which is 01000001. Lowercase a is 97, or 01100001. Each further ASCII character adds another eight bits.

Why does one character sometimes produce more than eight bits?

The tool uses UTF-8. ASCII characters take one byte, but accented letters, non-Latin scripts, and emoji take two to four bytes, so they appear as 16 to 32 bits or 4 to 8 hex digits.

Runs in your browser. Page last updated .

More encoding and data tools

All 28 encoding and data tools
CSV to JSON ConverterConvert CSV or TSV data to a JSON array of objects, using the first row as property names and detecting the delimiter automatically.CSV ViewerView CSV data as a readable table by pasting the text or opening a file, with the delimiter detected and the rows and columns counted.Decimal to Binary ConverterConvert a decimal number to binary and see every bit of the result, along with its octal, hexadecimal, and base 36 equivalents.Excel to CSV ConverterOpen an Excel file in your browser, view each sheet as a table, and download any sheet as CSV without uploading the file.Hex to ASCII ConverterConvert hexadecimal byte values to ASCII or UTF-8 text, accepting digits with or without spaces and an optional 0x prefix.Hex to Binary ConverterConvert a hexadecimal value to binary, with or without a 0x prefix, and see the decimal and octal equivalents at the same time.