Each character maps to its 8-bit UTF-8 byte. "A" = 01000001 (65), space = 00100000 (32).UTF-8 encodes ASCII (0-127) as one byte and uses 2-4 bytes for accented or non-Latin characters. Output is space-separated 8-bit groups.
Binary Output
ASCII reference table
| Character (code) | Binary |
|---|---|
| A (65) | 01000001 |
| B (66) | 01000010 |
| Z (90) | 01011010 |
| a (97) | 01100001 |
| z (122) | 01111010 |
| 0 (48) | 00110000 |
| 9 (57) | 00111001 |
| space (32) | 00100000 |
| ! (33) | 00100001 |
| ? (63) | 00111111 |
| @ (64) | 01000000 |
| ~ (126) | 01111110 |
How to Convert Text to Binary
- Enter your text.Type or paste the text you want to convert into the input area.
- See the binary output.The binary representation (8-bit ASCII) appears instantly below.
- Choose separator.Pick spaces, commas, or no separator between binary bytes.
- Copy the result.Copy the binary string to clipboard for use in code or homework.
Text to Binary — ASCII to Binary Conversion (8-bit Generator)
Convert any text to its binary representation. Each character is encoded as an 8-bit binary number, space-separated for readability. Copy the result with one click.
About this tool
The text to binary converter transforms each character in your text into its 8-bit binary representation. Results are space-separated for easy reading.
- Real-time text to binary conversion
- 8-bit encoding per character
- Space-separated binary output
- One-click copy to clipboard
Free. No signup. Your inputs stay in your browser. Ads via Google AdSense (consent required).
Frequently asked questions
Why does my binary output look different from another encoder's?
Two common causes: (a) encoding mode — UTF-8 (per RFC 3629) encodes ASCII characters (0-127) as one byte, but Latin-1 supplement, CJK, and emoji as 2-4 bytes; another tool may default to ISO-8859-1 (single byte) and silently corrupt non-ASCII characters. (b) Code-point vs byte mode — "€" is U+20AC, one code point, but three UTF-8 bytes (E2 82 AC = 11100010 10000010 10101100). Verify which encoding the comparison tool uses before assuming a mismatch.
How many bits per character does UTF-8 use?
UTF-8 is variable-width per RFC 3629 §3: ASCII characters (U+0000 to U+007F) use 1 byte (8 bits); U+0080 to U+07FF use 2 bytes; U+0800 to U+FFFF use 3 bytes; supplementary planes U+10000 to U+10FFFF use 4 bytes. The first byte of a multi-byte sequence has the high bits 110, 1110, or 11110 (signalling 2/3/4 bytes); continuation bytes always start with 10. This self-synchronizing design lets a parser recover from a mid-stream truncation by scanning for the next non-continuation byte.
Can I use this for non-Latin scripts like CJK or emoji?
Yes — when UTF-8 mode is selected, Chinese/Japanese/Korean characters and emoji encode correctly into 3-4 byte sequences. "中" (U+4E2D) is 11100100 10111000 10101101 in UTF-8 (3 bytes); "😀" (U+1F600) is 11110000 10011111 10011000 10000000 (4 bytes — a supplementary-plane code point). Code-point mode pads to a minimum 8 bits per code point, so "中" becomes the 16-bit value 0100111000101101 — this is NOT a standard wire format, useful for inspecting code-point values directly.
What's the difference between text-to-binary and text-to-base64?
Both are reversible text-to-ASCII encodings, but binary (base2) lists each byte as 8 ones and zeros (8× size expansion, 100% visibility into bit patterns), while base64 (RFC 4648) packs 6 bits per character into a 64-symbol alphabet (1.33× expansion, compact but opaque). Binary is for inspection and education — seeing exactly which bits each character occupies. Base64 is for transport — fitting binary data through 7-bit text channels like email (MIME RFC 2045) or URL parameters.
How does this tool handle accessibility for screen readers?
The binary output and copy-button label sit inside an aria-live="polite" region — the W3C WCAG Success Criterion 4.1.3 (Status Messages, introduced in WCAG 2.1, Recommendation 5 June 2018; carried unchanged into WCAG 2.2, Recommendation 5 October 2023) pattern. Polite live regions queue announcements after any speech in progress, so updating the input announces the new binary output without interrupting the user mid-sentence. Mode-tab buttons announce their selected state via aria-pressed.
Sources (5)
- F. Yergeau (2003). RFC 3629 — UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646 — defines the variable-width 1-4 byte encoding used in this tool's UTF-8 mode (ASCII as 1 byte, supplementary planes as 4 bytes). Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Standards Track; supersedes RFC 2279 (1998); obsoletes parts of RFC 2044.
- American Standards Association (1963). ASA X3.4-1963 — Character Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) — the 7-bit code that anchors the lower 128 code points of UTF-8; later revised as ANSI X3.4-1986 and adopted as ISO/IEC 646. American Standards Association (now ANSI); foundational for all modern text encodings.
- The Unicode Consortium (2024). The Unicode Standard, Version 16.0 — Chapter 3 Conformance and Chapter 2 General Structure — defines code-point ranges, character properties, and the BMP / supplementary-plane partition that determines whether a character takes 1, 2, 3, or 4 UTF-8 bytes. Unicode Consortium, Mountain View CA; ISO/IEC 10646:2024 mirror.
- S. Josefsson (2006). RFC 4648 — The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data Encodings — the canonical reference for compact text encodings cited in the FAQ for comparison with binary mode (8× vs 1.33× expansion). Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Standards Track; obsoletes RFC 3548 (2003).
- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (2018). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 — Success Criterion 4.1.3 Status Messages — governs the `aria-live="polite"` pattern used for the binary-output region. W3C Recommendation 5 June 2018; carried unchanged into WCAG 2.2 (Recommendation 5 October 2023).
These are the original publications the formulas in this tool are based on. Locate them by journal name and year on Google Scholar or PubMed.
By Marco B. ·
Related guides
- Base64 in Production — When It Helps and When It HurtsBase64 is a transport encoding, not compression and not encryption. When it earns its 33% overhead in real systems, and when it is a code smell to rip out.
- Character Encoding for Developers — ASCII, UTF-8, UTF-16Character encoding confuses people decades after it should be solved. Here is the mental model: code points, encodings, BOMs, and why UTF-8 almost always wins.