Text to binary converter

Paste text and get binary code, one 8-bit byte per character (more for emoji and accents). Choose spacing to match what you need.

Text5 chars · 5 bytes

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Binary40 bits

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How to convert text to binary by hand

Find the character's decimal code in the ASCII table. “h” is 104.
Subtract the largest power of two that fits (64), then the next (32), then 8. 104 = 64 + 32 + 8.
Write a 1 under each power you used and a 0 under the rest: 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 → 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0.
Repeat for each character and put a space between bytes.

The decimal to binary converter shows this subtraction (or the repeated-division method) for any number you enter.

Text to binary chart: every printable character

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 you convert text to binary?

Look up each character’s code (A = 65), then write that number in base 2 using 8 digits: 65 = 64 + 1 = 01000001. For characters beyond ASCII, first encode them as UTF-8 bytes, then write each byte in binary.

What is “hello” in binary?

01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111.

What is the difference between ASCII binary and UTF-8 binary?

For the 128 ASCII characters there is no difference. For anything else ASCII has no code at all, while UTF-8 uses 2–4 bytes. Choose UTF-8 unless an assignment asks for 7-bit ASCII.

Why does every letter start with 0?

ASCII codes stop at 127, which fits in 7 bits. The eighth, leftmost bit of the byte is therefore always 0 for plain English text.

Can I convert the alphabet or a whole file to binary?

Yes. Type letters or open a .txt file with “Open file”, then download the binary. The letter-by-letter chart is on the binary alphabet page.

Can I get binary without spaces?

Yes. Choose “No spaces” in the separator menu. Commas are also available for pasting into code.