Binary to Text Converter

The Binary to Text Converter decodes space-separated 8-bit binary bytes into UTF-8 text and can encode text back into binary. Each byte is also shown as a decimal value, hexadecimal value, and printable character when available.

Choose a direction

• Binary to text: Enter groups such as 01001000 01101001. Every group must contain exactly eight 0 or 1 characters.
• Text to binary: Enter text and the calculator encodes its UTF-8 bytes. Characters outside the basic ASCII range may use multiple bytes.

How it works

For binary input, each 8-bit group is parsed as a base-2 integer. For example, 01001000 equals decimal 72 and hexadecimal 48, which is the ASCII character H. The full byte sequence is then decoded as UTF-8.

For text input, the browser's UTF-8 encoder converts each character into one or more bytes. Each byte is formatted with eight binary digits and joined with spaces.

Worked example

To encode Hi:

1. H is decimal 72, which is 01001000 in binary.
2. i is decimal 105, which is 01101001 in binary.
3. The result is 01001000 01101001.

Decoding those two groups returns Hi and shows the same byte breakdown in reverse.

Input rules and errors

Binary mode accepts only 8-bit groups separated by whitespace. Invalid characters, groups with the wrong length, or byte sequences that are not valid UTF-8 are rejected. Empty text and empty binary input also return an error.

Related tools

Use the Binary Translator for a simple text-to-binary output. For broader numeric base changes, use the Unit Converter.

Limitations

This is a byte-level UTF-8 converter, not a general-purpose binary file decoder. It does not upload or store your input, interpret file headers, or detect an alternate character encoding automatically.