Hex to Text Converter
Paste hexadecimal bytes to read them as text, or type text to get its hex. UTF-8, so accents and emoji work both ways.
Why programmers write bytes in hex
One hexadecimal digit stands for exactly four bits, so every byte is exactly two hex digits. That makes hex far easier to read than binary (6C instead of 01101100) while still lining up with the bytes in memory. You will see it in colour codes (#FF8800), MAC addresses, memory dumps and escape sequences such as \x41.
To look up a single code, use the ASCII table; to convert a hex number such as FF to 255, use hex to decimal.
Questions people ask
How do I convert hex to text?
Split the hex into pairs of digits. Each pair is one byte (00 to FF). Convert each byte to a number and look it up as a character: 48 65 6C 6C 6F is 72 101 108 108 111, which spells “Hello”.
Which hex formats does this accept?
Plain runs like 48656c6c6f, space- or colon-separated bytes, 0x-prefixed bytes (0x48 0x65) and C-style escapes (\x48\x65). Case does not matter.
Why does my hex decode to strange symbols?
The bytes probably are not text: they may be part of an image, a compressed file or a hash. Hashes such as MD5 or SHA-256 are one-way and never decode to readable text.
Is hex the same as a hash?
No. Hex is just a way of writing bytes. A hash is a fixed-length fingerprint that is usually displayed in hex, which is why the two get confused.