Loading
Preparing your generator page
We are loading content and tools so everything is ready to use.
We are loading content and tools so everything is ready to use.
Convert text to binary and binary back to text. Every character is shown with its Unicode code point and UTF-8 bytes, in binary and hex.
For another two-symbol code, try the Morse Code Generator or browse the Text tools.
Last updated: October 5, 2026 · Published: 2026-04-09 · Updated: 2026-10-05
3 characters · 3 bytes · 24 bits
Byte by byte
| Character | Code point | UTF-8 binary | Hex |
|---|---|---|---|
| H | U+0048 | 01001000 | 48 |
| i | U+0069 | 01101001 | 69 |
| ! | U+0021 | 00100001 | 21 |
A binary code generator turns text into the 0s and 1s a computer stores, and turns binary back into text. Each character becomes one or more bytes, and each byte is written as 8 binary digits. "Hi!" becomes 01001000 01101001 00100001.
This generator uses UTF-8, the encoding W3Techs finds on 99.1% of websites with a known encoding as of October 2026. UTF-8 matches ASCII for English letters, digits, and punctuation, one byte each. Accented letters take 2 bytes, most other scripts and symbols 3, and emoji 4. You can also show the bytes as hex or decimal.
Decoding accepts bytes with or without spaces and pads 7-bit groups to 8. When binary cannot be decoded, the generator says why. Everything runs in your browser.
Choose a direction
Text to binary encodes. Binary to text decodes. Each loads a short example.
Type or paste
The result updates as you type. When encoding, pick binary, hex, or decimal and the separator between bytes.
Check and copy
The byte-by-byte table shows each character's code point and UTF-8 bytes. Copy the result, or click Convert back to check it.
These values are the same in ASCII and UTF-8. A lowercase letter is its capital plus 32, so the two differ by a single bit.
| Character | Binary | Decimal | Hex |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 01000001 | 65 | 41 |
| B | 01000010 | 66 | 42 |
| Z | 01011010 | 90 | 5A |
| a | 01100001 | 97 | 61 |
| b | 01100010 | 98 | 62 |
| z | 01111010 | 122 | 7A |
| 0 | 00110000 | 48 | 30 |
| 9 | 00111001 | 57 | 39 |
| space | 00100000 | 32 | 20 |
| ! | 00100001 | 33 | 21 |
Hello in binary: 01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111
The first bits of each byte tell a decoder how many bytes belong to the character. The x positions hold the code point's bits.
| Code points | Bytes | Bit pattern | Example | Example in binary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U+0000 to U+007F | 1 | 0xxxxxxx | A | 01000001 |
| U+0080 to U+07FF | 2 | 110xxxxx 10xxxxxx | é | 11000011 10101001 |
| U+0800 to U+FFFF | 3 | 1110xxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx | € | 11100010 10000010 10101100 |
| U+10000 to U+10FFFF | 4 | 11110xxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx | 😀 | 11110000 10011111 10011000 10000000 |
Because a continuation byte always starts with 10, a decoder that lands in the middle of a character can find the next one. Rob Pike and Ken Thompson required that property when they designed UTF-8.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1703 | Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz publishes his account of binary arithmetic, Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire. |
| 1947 | John Tukey shortens binary digit to bit in a Bell Labs memo. Claude Shannon credits him in 1948. |
| 1956 | Werner Buchholz coins byte while designing the IBM Stretch computer. |
| 1963 | The American Standards Association approves ASCII on June 17, a 7-bit code with 128 characters. |
| 1964 | IBM announces System/360 on April 7. Its 8-bit byte becomes the industry standard. |
| 1992 | Ken Thompson designs UTF-8 in September, guided by Rob Pike, sketching it on a diner placemat. |
| 2003 | RFC 3629 standardizes UTF-8 with 1 to 4 bytes per character, up to U+10FFFF. |
How text becomes binary, why emoji take 4 bytes, decoding errors, and how ASCII and UTF-8 differ.
Explore more tools in the directory.
Another two-symbol code for letters.
Six-dot cells, another way to encode letters.
Spell text with Alfa, Bravo, Charlie.
Styled Unicode letters and their code points.
Reverse text, emoji-safe.
Name a color from its hex code.