How to Convert Text to Binary
Converting text to binary means encoding each character as bytes, then writing each byte as an 8-bit base-2 value.
Step 1: Enter your text into the input field above. You can type directly or paste existing text.
Step 2: The converter encodes the text as UTF-8. Standard ASCII characters keep their familiar decimal values, such as A = 65.
Step 3: Each encoded byte is converted to an 8-bit binary value and displayed in space-separated groups for readability.
Example: The word Hi becomes H = 01001000, i = 01101001, so the result is 01001000 01101001.
ASCII to Binary: Character → Decimal → Binary
For standard ASCII characters, the conversion is easy to follow because every character maps to one decimal value from 0 to 127, and that value fits in one 8-bit byte.
| Character | ASCII Decimal | 8-bit Binary |
|---|---|---|
A |
65 | 01000001 |
B |
66 | 01000010 |
a |
97 | 01100001 |
1 |
49 | 00110001 |
| Space | 32 | 00100000 |
For example, Cat breaks down as C = 67 = 01000011, a = 97 = 01100001, and t = 116 = 01110100. Combined, the text becomes 01000011 01100001 01110100.
Need a letter-only chart? Use the Binary Alphabet A-Z reference for uppercase and lowercase letter codes. For the full 0-127 character range, use the ASCII table.
UTF-8, Unicode, and Emoji in Binary
ASCII is contained inside UTF-8, so ordinary English letters still use one byte each. Characters outside ASCII can require multiple UTF-8 bytes, which means one visible character may produce several 8-bit binary groups.
For example, the emoji 😀 is encoded in UTF-8 as four bytes: F0 9F 98 80. In binary, those bytes are 11110000 10011111 10011000 10000000.
This is why counting visible characters is not always the same as counting output bytes. The converter shows the actual UTF-8 byte sequence rather than forcing every Unicode character into a single 8-bit value.
Common Text to Binary Conversions
Here are some common text to binary conversions to help you check the output:
| Text | Binary |
|---|---|
| Hello | 01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 |
| World | 01010111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 |
| Binary | 01000010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 |
| 123 | 00110001 00110010 00110011 |
Common Text-to-Binary Errors
- Ignoring case: Uppercase
Aand lowercaseahave different byte values and therefore different binary output. - Dropping spaces or punctuation: Spaces, commas, line breaks, and punctuation are data too and change the result.
- Assuming every character is one byte: ASCII characters are one byte in UTF-8, but many accented characters, symbols, and emoji use multiple bytes.
- Reading binary groups as decimal digits:
01000001is a base-2 representation of the byte value 65; it is not the decimal number 1,000,001.
If you already have 0s and 1s and want readable characters, use the binary to text converter for the reverse direction.