ASCII to Binary Converter
Converts text into its 8-bit binary representation and back. The letter A becomes 01000001. Each byte is padded to a full eight digits so the output aligns into readable columns.
As with hex, text is encoded as UTF-8 first, so characters outside ASCII expand into the several bytes they actually occupy.
How to use it
- Enter text on the left to see its binary form on the right.
- Press Swap to decode binary back into text.
- Separators are optional when decoding — spaces, commas, underscores and hyphens are all ignored.
Why the length must be a multiple of eight
Binary here represents whole bytes. If the digits you paste do not divide evenly into groups of eight, the intended byte boundaries are ambiguous, so the decoder reports the problem instead of padding one end and returning plausible-looking nonsense.
Any character other than 0 or 1 is likewise rejected rather than skipped.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my binary string rejected?
- Either it contains something other than 0 and 1, or its length is not a multiple of eight. Both cases are reported explicitly rather than being silently corrected.
Is this two's complement or a number base conversion?
- Neither. It converts the bytes of text, not the value of a number. To see a number in binary, convert it as text or use the hex converter for its byte representation.
Can I convert binary produced by another tool?
- Yes, as long as it represents 8-bit bytes. Separators between groups are ignored, so both '01001000 01101001' and '0100100001101001' decode identically.