binary translator

How to use the binary translator

  1. Choose a direction: 'Text → Binary' to encode, 'Binary → Text' to decode.
  2. Pick an encoding: ASCII for English-only text (7 or 8 bits per char), UTF-8 for any language including emoji, or UTF-16 for legacy JavaScript / Windows data.
  3. Type or paste your input — the conversion runs live as you type.
  4. Adjust the group separator (space, hyphen, or none) to match how your source formats the binary.
  5. Toggle 'Show decimal & hex' to see the same characters rendered in parallel numbering systems.

When to use it

Useful for debugging character-encoding bugs (mojibake, UTF-8 double-encoding), teaching binary math, decoding CTF puzzles, or preparing hand-crafted test vectors. UTF-8 mode is the correct choice 99% of the time in modern systems — it's what HTTP, JSON, and filenames use. ASCII mode is only right when you're specifically working with legacy protocols. Alternative: `xxd -b` on a Unix shell handles the same encode direction, but doesn't have a decoder baked in.

Example

The letter 'A' across encodings:

ASCII 7-bit:  1000001
ASCII 8-bit:  01000001
UTF-8:        01000001
UTF-16:       0000000001000001

Frequently asked questions

What is a binary translator?
A tool that converts text to its binary representation (the 1s and 0s a computer stores) or binary back to text. The output depends on which character encoding you pick — ASCII, UTF-8, or UTF-16.
ASCII vs UTF-8 vs UTF-16 — which should I use?
UTF-8 is the default for modern text (web, JSON, source code). ASCII only works for English characters and basic punctuation. UTF-16 is used by Windows internals and older JavaScript strings — use it when you're specifically interfacing with those systems.
How do I translate the letter 'A' to binary?
In ASCII and UTF-8, 'A' is 65 decimal = 01000001 binary. In UTF-16 it's padded to 16 bits: 0000000001000001. Paste 'A' in encode mode to see it instantly.
Can the binary translator handle emoji?
Only UTF-8 and UTF-16 encodings can. ASCII is limited to characters 0-127 (or 0-255 in 8-bit mode) — pick UTF-8 for 😀 and multi-byte characters.
Why is my decoded output garbled?
Encoding mismatch. If the binary was encoded as UTF-8 but you're decoding it as ASCII, multi-byte sequences will look wrong. Try toggling the encoding setting — usually UTF-8 fixes it.
What is the difference between 7-bit and 8-bit ASCII?
True ASCII is 7-bit (0-127). 8-bit 'extended ASCII' fills bytes to 0-255 with language-specific characters that differ across code pages (Latin-1, CP-1252). For portability, prefer UTF-8 over 8-bit ASCII.

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Last updated: 2026-04-24