Binary translator

Type in either box. Binary code turns into readable text and text into 8-bit binary, as you type. Choose ASCII, UTF-8, UTF-16 or Windows-1252, and open or download files.

Text4 chars · 7 bytes

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Binary56 bits

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How binary becomes text

Computers store every letter as a number, and every number as a row of bits. Reading binary is the same process run backwards: cut the bits into bytes, turn each byte into a number, and look the number up in a character table.

Walk one character through the four stages below. Try “A”, then “é”, then the emoji, and watch the byte count grow.

You see a character. The computer can't store shapes, only numbers, so first it looks the character up in Unicode.

Read a byte by hand

Each position in a byte is worth double the one to its right: 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1. Flip the switches to build a number and see which ASCII character it stands for. Uppercase letters live between 65 and 90; add 32 (flip the third switch from the left) and you get the lowercase letter.

64 + 8 = 72 · hex 48 · octal 110 · ASCII H

Seeing the value change as you flip each bit is usually what makes place value click. That same click can happen elsewhere: ahaboo builds hands-on explainers you can manipulate, like dragging the Moon to understand why it goes through phases.

Binary, ASCII and UTF-8 in one paragraph

ASCII (1963) defines 128 characters, numbered 0 to 127: English letters, digits, punctuation and control codes. Unicode extends the numbering to more than a million code points so every script and emoji has one. UTF-8 is the way those code points are written as bytes: ASCII characters stay one byte, everything else uses two to four. That's why this translator can read old ASCII binary and modern emoji binary with the same rules. The full list of 128 codes is in the ASCII table, and the letters alone are in the binary alphabet.

Binary to text table: printable ASCII

Char	Binary	Dec
space	00100000	32
!	00100001	33
"	00100010	34
#	00100011	35
$	00100100	36
%	00100101	37
&	00100110	38
'	00100111	39
(	00101000	40
)	00101001	41
*	00101010	42
+	00101011	43
,	00101100	44
-	00101101	45
.	00101110	46
/	00101111	47
0	00110000	48
1	00110001	49
2	00110010	50
3	00110011	51
4	00110100	52
5	00110101	53
6	00110110	54
7	00110111	55
8	00111000	56
9	00111001	57
:	00111010	58
;	00111011	59
<	00111100	60
=	00111101	61
>	00111110	62
?	00111111	63

Char	Binary	Dec
@	01000000	64
A	01000001	65
B	01000010	66
C	01000011	67
D	01000100	68
E	01000101	69
F	01000110	70
G	01000111	71
H	01001000	72
I	01001001	73
J	01001010	74
K	01001011	75
L	01001100	76
M	01001101	77
N	01001110	78
O	01001111	79
P	01010000	80
Q	01010001	81
R	01010010	82
S	01010011	83
T	01010100	84
U	01010101	85
V	01010110	86
W	01010111	87
X	01011000	88
Y	01011001	89
Z	01011010	90
[	01011011	91
\	01011100	92
]	01011101	93
^	01011110	94
_	01011111	95

Char	Binary	Dec
`	01100000	96
a	01100001	97
b	01100010	98
c	01100011	99
d	01100100	100
e	01100101	101
f	01100110	102
g	01100111	103
h	01101000	104
i	01101001	105
j	01101010	106
k	01101011	107
l	01101100	108
m	01101101	109
n	01101110	110
o	01101111	111
p	01110000	112
q	01110001	113
r	01110010	114
s	01110011	115
t	01110100	116
u	01110101	117
v	01110110	118
w	01110111	119
x	01111000	120
y	01111001	121
z	01111010	122
{	01111011	123
\|	01111100	124
}	01111101	125
~	01111110	126

Questions people ask

How do I translate binary to text?

Split the binary into groups of 8 bits (one byte each), convert every byte to its decimal value, then look that value up in the ASCII or UTF-8 table. 01001000 is 72, which is “H”. Paste the bits into the Binary box above and the translator does all of this instantly.

What does 01001000 01101001 mean?

It spells “Hi”. 01001000 is 72 (H) and 01101001 is 105 (i).

Why does binary use 8 digits per letter?

Eight bits make one byte, the smallest unit most computers address. Plain ASCII only needs 7 bits (0–127), but it is stored in a full byte with a leading 0, which is why every English letter starts with 0.

Can the translator handle emoji and accented letters?

Yes. It uses UTF-8, the encoding used by about 98% of websites (W3Techs). Characters outside ASCII take 2 to 4 bytes, so “é” becomes 11000011 10101001 and “🙂” becomes four bytes.

My binary has no spaces. Will it still work?

Yes. A continuous string of 0s and 1s is split into 8-bit bytes automatically (or 7-bit groups if the length only divides by 7). If the length is not a multiple of 8 you will get a message pointing at the problem.

How do I convert binary code to English?

Paste the 0s and 1s into the Binary box. Each 8-bit group becomes one character. If you get odd symbols, the text may use another encoding: try UTF-16 or Windows-1252 in the encoding menu.

What is 01000001 in text?

Capital “A” (decimal 65). 00110000 is the digit “0” (decimal 48).

Can I translate a binary file?

Yes. Use “Open file” to load a .txt file of binary, and “Download” to save the result. Files never leave your browser.

Is my text sent anywhere?

No. The conversion is JavaScript running in your browser tab. Nothing is uploaded.