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Binary to text converter

Decode binary code back to readable text. Paste groups of 8 bits, with or without spaces, and the text appears as you type. The decoding runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded.

How it works

  1. Paste your text

    Type or paste the text in the left box, or open a .txt file. No text to hand? Click Example.

  2. Instant result

    The result appears as you type. Change the options and see straight away what changes.

  3. Copy or download

    Copy the result with one click, save it as a file or use it as input for a next step.

Example

01001000 01101001 becomes Hi. The longer example in the tool decodes 12 bytes into Hello é😀, using the UTF-8 rules for the accented letter and the emoji.

How it works

The digits are split into bytes of 8 bits and each byte is read as a number: 01001000 is 72, which is H. The bytes are then decoded as UTF-8, the encoding that web pages and most files use.

Typical problems

  • Wrong length: a group with fewer or more than 8 digits is reported, with its position.
  • Other characters: only 0 and 1 are valid; spaces separate groups.
  • Not text: binary from an image or program decodes to nonsense, and the tool tells you when it is not valid UTF-8.

Related

The opposite is text to binary. For hexadecimal code use hex to text, and for decimal codes see text to ASCII.

Frequently asked questions

What format does the binary have to be in?

Groups of 8 digits, separated by spaces, or one long string whose length is a multiple of 8. `01001000 01101001` and `0100100001101001` both give `Hi`.

Why do I get an error about the group length?

Each byte needs exactly 8 binary digits. `010010000110100` has 15, so a digit is missing. The message shows where the group starts and how many characters it has.

What if the bytes are not valid UTF-8?

The tool says so and reads each byte as one Latin-1 character instead, so `11111111 11111110` gives `ÿþ`. That usually means the data is not text, or uses another encoding.

Are accents and emoji decoded?

Yes, when they are encoded as UTF-8 (two to four bytes each). The example `Hello é😀` decodes all 12 bytes correctly.