Binary to Text Converter

About the Binary to Text Converter

What is a binary to text converter?

A binary to text converter decodes groups of 0s and 1s back into the characters they stand for.

It reads each 8-bit byte as a code in ASCII or UTF-8. Text is stored as numbers. 01001000 is 72, and 72 is H in ASCII and in every encoding built on it, including UTF-8, so a decoder only has to split the bits into bytes, turn each byte into a number and look the number up. The hard part is untidy input, which is what this tool is built for.

Facts worth knowing before you decode

• A byte is 8 bits, and one byte covers all 128 ASCII characters with room to spare.
• 01001000 01101001 is Hi and 01101000 01101001 is hi. The case lives in the third bit.
• A 7-bit group such as 1001000 is ASCII with the leading zero dropped, and it decodes to the same H.
• In UTF-8, a byte starting with 110, 1110 or 11110 begins a character of two, three or four bytes, and each byte that follows starts with 10.
• Anything other than 0 and 1 inside a group, such as a 2 or a letter, means the group is not binary at all.

How to convert binary to text

1. Paste the binary. Spaces, commas, line breaks, 0b prefixes and unseparated streams are all understood.
2. Read the status line. It reports 7-bit groups, mixed widths, a stray character or a byte that is not valid UTF-8, and it names the group so you can fix it.
3. Change the encoding if the text looks wrong. Latin-1 reads single-byte accents that come out as � in UTF-8, and UTF-16 reads two-byte units.
4. Check the character table. Each character sits next to the exact bytes it came from.
5. Copy or swap. Swap sends the text back through the encoder so you can compare it with what you pasted.

To decode by hand, split the bits into groups of eight and add the place values 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 and 1 wherever there is a 1, then look the total up in an ASCII table. 01001000 has 1s in the 64 and 8 columns, so it is 72, which is H.

Example

With UTF-8 selected, this binary will be converted to readable text, one byte per character:

01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00101100 00100000 01010111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 00100001

Hello, World!

The 7-bit form 1001000 1101001 also gives Hi, and so does the unseparated stream 0100100001101001. The status line notes both cases instead of guessing silently.

Binary to text table

The same ASCII anchors, read from the bits. Turn the byte into decimal, then find it here.

Common mistakes

• A missing or extra bit. In an unseparated stream, one dropped 0 shifts every byte after it and the text turns to nonsense from that point. With separators, the tool pads the short group and the status line names it.
• Wrong grouping of a stream. Without separators the tool reads 8-bit groups from the left. It switches to 7-bit groups when the bit count is a multiple of 7 but not of 8, or when it is a multiple of both and the 8-bit reading is not readable text.
• Mixing up Latin-1 and UTF-8. 11000011 10101001 is é in UTF-8, but a Latin-1 decoder shows it as é. A single 11101001 is é in Latin-1 and invalid in UTF-8.
• Treating decimal as binary. 72 is the code for H, but typing 72 into a binary field is two digits that are not bits, so the tool flags the group and skips it.

Common Use Cases

Binary turns up in a few places where a quick decode helps:

• Decoding a message. Puzzle hunts, escape rooms, geocaches and social posts hide text as 0s and 1s.
• Checking homework. Paste your answer and the table shows each byte next to the character it produced.
• Reading a dump. Bytes copied from a debugger or a hex editor decode once the encoding matches the source.
• Fixing mojibake. Switching between UTF-8 and Latin-1 shows which encoding a file was really written in.

To create binary, use the Text to Binary Converter or press Swap. For decimal codes rather than bits, the ASCII Code to Text Converter reads numbers such as 72 101 108.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I convert binary to text?

Split the bits into 8-bit bytes and turn each byte into its decimal value. Look each value up in an ASCII or UTF-8 table, or paste the binary here and the character table shows all three steps.

What does 01101000 01101001 mean?

It spells hi in ASCII and UTF-8. The first byte is 104, lowercase h, and the second is 105, lowercase i.

What is 0110110 in binary?

On its own, 0110110 is the number 54, which is the character 6 in ASCII. It has 7 bits, so a decoder that insists on 8 will reject it, while this one pads it with a leading zero.

Why does my binary translate to strange characters?

The bytes were probably written in a different encoding, or a missing bit shifted every byte after it. Try Latin-1 for accented text, and read the status line for the group it flags.

Can I decode binary that has no spaces?

Yes. A stream with no separators is read as 8-bit groups from left to right, and a stream whose length only divides by 7 is read as 7-bit groups.

What does 11111111 mean in binary?

11111111 is 255, the largest value one byte can hold. It is not a printable ASCII character and never appears in valid UTF-8 text, so the decoder flags it instead of showing a character.