Binary to text
Paste binary in 8-bit groups and turn it into readable text, accents and emoji included.
Plain letters take one 8-bit group; accented letters and emoji take two to four. A missing or extra bit shows an error. It all runs in your browser: your text is never uploaded.
Example input and result
01001000 01101001
Result
Hi
Convert binary to text in one paste
Paste the bits into “Your text” and the translation shows up in “Result” right away. 01001000 01101001 gives Hi. Groups can be separated by spaces, line breaks, or commas, or run together with no gaps at all: 0100100001101001 gives Hi too. “Copy result” and “Download TXT” take the text with you, “Load example” fills in a sample, and “Clear” empties the box.
Reading a binary byte by hand
Each 8-bit group is a number from 0 to 255. From left to right the bits are worth 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 and 1, and you add up the ones set to 1. 01001000 has a 1 in the 64 place and another in the 8 place, so it's 72, which is H in the ASCII table. Work through homework that way, then paste your bits here to check the answer.
Capital and lowercase versions of a letter differ by a single bit, the third from the left: H is 01001000 and h is 01101000. If a decoded word comes out in the wrong case, look at that bit first. Digits follow a pattern too: the last four bits of 00110111 spell out 7.
- Capital letters A to Z start with
010(A =01000001) - Lowercase letters a to z start with
011(a =01100001) - Digits 0 to 9 start with
0011(0 =00110000) - A space is
00100000
Why accents and emoji take more than one byte
The converter reads bytes as UTF-8, the encoding most of the web uses. Plain English letters fit in one byte, é, ñ and other accented letters take two, and most emoji take four. That's why 11000011 10101001 is one character, é, and 11110000 10011111 10010001 10001011 is a single 👋. Split one of those sequences or drop a byte from it, and the rest can't be read as text.
When binary won't decode
Before decoding, the tool strips spaces, line breaks and commas, then cuts the bits into groups of eight in order. Your own spacing is ignored, so one group with seven bits shifts everything after it. In most cases the total then stops dividing by eight and you see “Enter complete eight-bit binary bytes.” Converters that drop leading zeros cause this a lot: 1001000 1101001 fails, while 01001000 01101001 decodes.
- A 7-bit or 9-bit group: count the digits and add the missing leading zero
- A
0bprefix: delete it, since only 0 and 1 are accepted - Letters, dots, dashes or other characters mixed in with the bits
- Bytes that aren't valid UTF-8, such as
11111111or a lone11000011: you get a decoding error instead of garbled text
Binary messages, homework and puzzles
Decoding runs in your browser, on your phone or computer, and the bits you paste are never uploaded to a server. You can read a private message without anyone else seeing it, and there's no account to create. People reach for a binary to text converter for things like these:
- Checking computer science homework on number systems
- Reading a binary message from a friend, a card or a T-shirt, like
01001001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101(I love you) - CTF puzzles, escape rooms and coding challenges
- Checking what you made with Text to binary before you send it
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert binary to text?
Paste the 8-bit groups into the box and the text appears as you paste. Spaces, line breaks and commas between groups are fine, and so is one long run of bits. For example, 01001000 01101001 gives Hi. Then tap “Copy result” to use it anywhere.
Why does each letter take 8 digits?
Each group is one byte: eight bits that make a number from 0 to 255. One byte covers the basic Latin letters, digits and punctuation in ASCII. For accented letters and emoji, UTF-8 chains two to four bytes together, which is why some characters need more than one group.
Does it decode accents and emoji?
Yes, because it reads UTF-8. The letter é is 11000011 10101001, and most emoji take four groups. Binary made with an old single-byte table, where é is 11101001 on its own, isn't valid UTF-8, so the tool reports an error instead of guessing.
What happens if one bit is missing?
The tool ignores your spacing and cuts the bits every eight, so one missing bit shifts every byte after it. If the total no longer divides by eight, you get an error asking for complete bytes. Check that each group has eight digits; a dropped leading zero is the usual culprit.
Can I convert an image or a file from binary?
No. The tool only turns bytes that form UTF-8 text into characters. Images, audio and programs contain bytes that aren't text, so pasting their bits ends in a decoding error. Those files need a program that understands their format.