How To Convert Text To Binary

Quick Answer

Binary writes each character of your text as a string of eight 0s and 1s. The letter H becomes 01001000. To convert, paste your text and read the binary out; to go back, paste the 0s and 1s and read the text out.

What Is Binary?

Computers store everything as bits: tiny switches that are either off (0) or on (1). Eight of those bits make a byte, and a byte can represent 256 different values. Text is stored by giving every character a numeric code and writing that number in base-2 (binary).

The word "binary" just means "base two", the same way "decimal" means base ten. Where decimal counts with ten digits (0–9), binary counts with two (0 and 1), so numbers get longer but the alphabet of digits is as small as it can be.

How the Binary Conversion Works

Going from text to binary, the converter encodes your text as UTF-8 first, turning each character into one or more bytes. It then writes every byte as an 8-bit binary group. This is the same binary encoding an ASCII to binary conversion uses for plain English, where each letter maps to one byte of binary code. "Hi" is two bytes (72 and 105), which become 01001000 01101001.

Going from binary to text, it strips out anything that is not a 0 or 1, splits the remaining bits into groups of eight, turns each group back into a byte, and decodes the bytes as UTF-8. That is why this binary translator reads both 01001000 01101001 and 0100100001101001 as the same word: only the bits matter, and base 2 has no other digits to lose.

A Character Can Be More Than One Byte

A "character" can be more than one byte, which surprises people who expect 8-bit binary per visible symbol. English letters, digits, and common punctuation in the ASCII range each fit in a single byte. Accented letters, symbols, and emoji do not, so UTF-8 spends two to four bytes on them. An emoji can therefore turn into four 8-bit groups. That is expected: the converter shows you the real bytes and bytes, not a fixed eight bits per visible character.

Binary vs Hexadecimal vs Base64

Binary vs hexadecimal is a question of length, not meaning. Hexadecimal packs the same bits into base-16, so one byte is two hex digits instead of eight binary ones. The value is identical; hex is just shorter to read. Binary vs Base64 is a different trade: Base64 packs three bytes into four printable ASCII letters, which is why email and data URLs use it to move binary data as text. Binary spells out every bit, so it is the clearest way to see bits and bytes, while hex and Base64 are the compact forms for real work.

Examples

A single letter. For example, text to binary on A gives 01000001, the ASCII code 65 written in base 2.

A short word. For example, binary to text on 01001000 01101001 returns Hi, and the spaces between the 8-bit groups are optional.

A multibyte symbol. For example, the emoji 🙂 is not one byte of binary code: UTF-8 uses four bytes, so it becomes four 8-bit groups instead of one.

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