Developer Encoding

Binary to ASCII

Direction

Base

Binary groups

Text Hi

Eight bits per character

Bytes read 2

Note

Eight bits per character · groups must be separated

Each group of eight bits is one character code. 01001000 01101001 decodes to "Hi". The groups must be separated — an unbroken run of bits has no way to indicate where each character starts.

How to decode binary to text

1 Paste the binary, one byte per group separated by spaces.

2 Read the decoded text.

3 Groups shorter than eight bits are padded on the left.

4 Anything other than 0 and 1 is reported as an error.

The separation requirement is not a limitation of this tool but of the format. A run of 16 bits could be two 8-bit characters, or one 16-bit code point, and nothing in the bits themselves says which. Real binary formats solve this with a fixed width or a length prefix; a pasted binary string relies on the spaces you type. That is why every binary-to-text example you see is grouped.

Questions

What is 01001000 in text? −

Capital H, code 72.

Why do I need spaces between groups? +

How many bits per character? +

What if a group is shorter than eight bits? +

Is this the same as UTF-8? +

Was this tool any good?

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