Text <-> Binary Converter
Convert between text and 8-bit ASCII binary.
Overview
Convert plain text to its 8-bit binary representation and back. Each ASCII character becomes a group of eight 0s and 1s. "A" becomes 01000001, space becomes 00100000, and a full sentence becomes a long string of 0s and 1s separated by spaces or grouped however you like.
Computer-science teachers introducing binary, retro-tech hobbyists, escape-room designers wanting visual binary clues, and security trainers demonstrating low-level encoding all reach for it. It's also a quick way to see what your text looks like to the machine — every character is just a number underneath.
How it works
Each ASCII character has a code point between 0 and 127. Encoded as an 8-bit byte (one byte = eight bits) the high bit is zero and the lower seven hold the character's number. The converter looks up each character's code, formats the byte as eight binary digits, and outputs the bytes in order with your chosen separator. Decoding reverses the process: group the bits into bytes, parse each as a number, look up the character.
UTF-8 text containing non-ASCII characters uses multi-byte encodings, so a single emoji might become 32 or more bits.
Worked example: "Hi" — H is ASCII 72 (01001000), i is ASCII 105 (01101001). The full output is 01001000 01101001.
Examples
Input: Hi
Output: 01001000 01101001
Input: ABC
Output: 01000001 01000010 01000011
Input (decode): 01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111
Output: Hello
FAQ
Why 8 bits per character?
Modern systems use 8-bit bytes as their basic unit. ASCII fits in 7 bits but is conventionally stored padded to 8 for byte alignment.
What about Unicode characters?
UTF-8 encodes characters above ASCII using two to four bytes. The converter follows UTF-8 conventions, so "é" becomes two bytes (11000011 10101001) instead of one.
Can I use other groupings?
Most modes let you separate the output with spaces, tabs, line breaks, or nothing at all. Decoding accepts any consistent grouping.