Binary Translator

1. 1

   Type text to get binary

   Enter letters in the left box. Each character is converted to its UTF-8 bytes and shown as 8-bit groups in the right box.

2. 2

   Paste binary to decode

   Paste groups of 0s and 1s into the right box. Spaces, newlines, commas and 0b prefixes are accepted. Short groups are padded on the left and reported.

3. 3

   Choose a separator

   Use spaces, newlines or no separator. Without a separator the total number of bits must be a multiple of eight, or the tool explains how many bits are missing.

4. 4

   Check decimal and hex views

   The tabs below the tool show the same bytes in decimal and hexadecimal, which is useful when comparing binary with ASCII tables or code.

A bit is a single 0 or 1. Eight bits make a byte, and a byte can represent 256 values. In ASCII, the uppercase letter H is decimal 72, hexadecimal 48, and binary 01001000.

Modern text usually uses UTF-8, which is backward compatible with ASCII for English letters. Characters outside ASCII use more than one byte: é is 11000011 10101001, and many emoji use four bytes.

A byte is always eight bits, so 01001000 is different from 1001000 when you are grouping by hand. Dropping a leading zero changes the length of the group and can make an entire message shift by one bit.

This is why the decoder pads a short group with a warning instead of silently guessing. The warning tells you which group was padded and what value was read.

Binary is just another way to write the same bytes. Anyone can decode it, and it provides no secrecy. If you need privacy, use encryption rather than a different number base.

Binary is still useful for teaching how computers store text, for puzzles, and for checking how a character is represented in ASCII or UTF-8.

ASCII defines 128 code points, enough for English letters, digits and common punctuation. A is decimal 65 and binary 01000001; a is 97 and 01100001; the space is 32 and 00100000. The difference between upper and lower case is often a single bit.

UTF-8 keeps the ASCII range unchanged but uses two, three or four bytes for other scripts. é is 11000011 10101001, a Chinese character usually takes three bytes, and many emoji take four. That is why the binary form of a short non-English message can be much longer than the text.

• Dropping leading zeros

  Each byte must contain eight bits. 1001000 is seven bits; the correct eight-bit form of H is 01001000.

• Mixing ASCII and UTF-8

  ASCII covers only the first 128 code points. If your text contains é, Chinese characters or emoji, choose UTF-8 so the decoder does not mark those characters as invalid.

• Reading the bits in the wrong order

  This tool writes the most significant bit first, the same order used in ASCII tables. Some hardware protocols send the least significant bit first, so check the device documentation.

• Using seven-bit groups

  Seven-bit ASCII was an early standard, but modern text is stored in 8-bit bytes. A seven-digit group will be padded here with a warning, and the resulting byte may not be the character you intended.