Text to Binary Converter
Convert text to binary, hex, octal, and decimal representations. Also decode binary back to text instantly.
About Text to Binary Converter
Understanding how text is represented as numbers is fundamental to computing, networking, and programming. This Text to Binary Converter lets you instantly see the numeric encoding behind any string of characters, displayed in four common number bases: binary, hexadecimal, octal, and decimal.
Bidirectional conversion
Type or paste plain text to see its binary representation, or switch to decode mode and paste a binary string to reconstruct the original text. The tool accepts both space-separated bytes and continuous binary strings, making it flexible for different input formats.
Multiple output formats
Beyond binary, the tool simultaneously shows hexadecimal, octal, and decimal representations of your text. Hex values are widely used in web development for colors and memory addresses (see the hex to decimal converter for standalone hex work); octal appears in Unix file permissions; and decimal code points are used in HTML character entities and many programming contexts.
Configurable formatting
Toggle space-separated output to group each character's value into distinct blocks for easy reading, or turn it off for a continuous stream. Enable 8-bit padding to ensure each binary byte is displayed with leading zeros, which is the standard representation in most computing contexts.
All processing happens in your browser - nothing is uploaded or stored. For a different kind of encoding, check out the Base64 encoder/decoder.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does text-to-binary conversion work?
Each character in your text is converted to its numeric ASCII or Unicode code point, which is then expressed in base-2 (binary). For example, the letter 'A' has the code point 65, which is 01000001 in 8-bit binary. This tool performs the conversion for every character in your input.
What is the difference between binary, hex, octal, and decimal output?
They are all ways to represent the same numeric value in different number bases. Binary uses base 2 (digits 0-1), octal uses base 8 (0-7), decimal uses base 10 (0-9), and hexadecimal uses base 16 (0-9 plus A-F). Hex is common in web colors and programming; binary is fundamental to computing.
Can I convert binary back to text?
Yes. Switch to decode mode and paste a binary string - with or without spaces between bytes. The tool will convert each 8-bit group back to its corresponding character, reconstructing the original text.
Does this tool support Unicode characters?
The tool converts characters based on their Unicode code points. Standard ASCII characters (code points 0-127) produce clean 8-bit binary values. Characters outside the basic ASCII range will use their full code point value, which may require more than 8 bits.