Underneath every character you read is a number, and underneath every number is binary. The text-to-binary conversion makes that visible: each character maps to its Unicode code point, encoded in bits — 'A' is 01000001, 'a' is 01100001. It is the literal answer to 'how do computers store text', which makes this conversion a staple of CS education, encoding puzzles, and geek culture.
This tool converts text to binary (8-bit groups) and binary back to text, instantly and locally.
How to Use This Tool
- Type text to see its binary representation, space-separated by character.
- Or paste binary (groups of 8 bits) to decode it back to text.
- Copy either result with one click.
- Try your name first — then decode 01001000 01101001.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why 8 bits per character?
Eight bits (one byte) is the smallest standard addressable unit, and ASCII — the foundational text encoding — fits in it with room to spare. UTF-8, today's universal encoding, extends this by using 1 to 4 bytes per character, staying byte-compatible with ASCII.
How are emojis and accented letters encoded?
They have code points beyond 127, so UTF-8 encodes them in multiple bytes: é takes two (11000011 10101001) and most emojis take four. The decoder reassembles the multi-byte sequences automatically.
What is the difference between binary and ASCII?
ASCII is a table assigning numbers to characters (A=65); binary is just how numbers are written in base 2. 'Text to binary' really means: look up each character's number, then write that number in bits.