Text to Binary

After conversion, this table shows the first UTF-8 bytes produced from your text. Decimal, hexadecimal and binary values all represent the same byte in different number systems.

Computers ultimately store and transmit text as numeric data. Before text can be represented as binary, the characters need to be encoded into bytes using a character encoding.

This converter uses UTF-8. The browser’s TextEncoder converts the entered text into UTF-8 bytes. Each byte is then converted to an 8-digit base-2 value.

1. Type or paste your text into the input box.
2. Choose how you want the binary bytes displayed.
3. Select Convert to Binary.
4. Review the binary output and byte statistics.
5. Use the byte breakdown if you want to inspect individual UTF-8 bytes.
6. Select Copy Binary to copy the generated result.

If you have binary data and want to convert it in the opposite direction, use ToolZippy’s Binary to Text Converter.

UTF-8 was designed so that the standard ASCII range keeps the same byte values. This means common ASCII letters, digits and punctuation each use one byte in UTF-8.

Text:
ABC

Decimal bytes:
65 66 67

Binary:
01000001
01000010
01000011

With spaces between bytes, ABC becomes:

A common mistake is to assume that every visible character always becomes one 8-bit binary value. That is not true for UTF-8.

ASCII characters use one byte, but many other Unicode characters require two, three or four UTF-8 bytes. Therefore, the number of UTF-8 bytes can be greater than the number of visible characters.

For example, the euro sign € is encoded in UTF-8 using three bytes:

Emoji can also require multiple bytes. This is why this page describes its output as UTF-8 binary rather than claiming that every character directly corresponds to one byte.

Each UTF-8 byte contains 8 bits. When this tool displays a byte as binary, it writes all eight bit positions using the digits 0 and 1.

For example:

Spaces, commas, hyphens and other separators displayed between the binary bytes are only formatting aids. They are not part of the original UTF-8 byte data.

8-Bit Bytes

This is the easiest format to read. Every UTF-8 byte is displayed as eight binary digits, normally separated by spaces.

Continuous Binary

All byte values are joined together without separators. For example, the two ASCII characters AB become 0100000101000010.

One Byte Per Line

Each UTF-8 byte appears on its own line. This can be useful when inspecting or comparing individual byte values.

Custom Separator

You can enter your own separator if you need a particular presentation format. The separator changes only the displayed result, not the UTF-8 encoding itself.

• This converter uses UTF-8 rather than UTF-16, UTF-32 or a legacy character encoding.
• The same text encoded with another character encoding may produce different bytes.
• Some Unicode characters use more than one UTF-8 byte.
• What looks like one symbol on screen can sometimes consist of multiple Unicode code points.
• Separators in the displayed binary result are formatting and are not additional encoded bytes.

If you need to reproduce binary data from a particular external system, first confirm which character encoding that system uses.

The conversion operation on this page is designed to run in your browser using JavaScript’s UTF-8 TextEncoder. The page converts the entered text into bytes and formats those bytes as binary.

As with any online utility, avoid entering unnecessary passwords, payment details or other sensitive information. For confidential or regulated data, follow the handling procedures that apply to you or your organization.