Hex to text
What is a Hex To Text?
Hexadecimal is the standard way to display raw bytes: each byte becomes two hex digits from 00 to FF. You will meet hex in network captures, debuggers, database dumps, URL encoding, color codes and binary protocols. This converter decodes hex into readable UTF-8 text and encodes text as hex with formatting options.
How to use it
- Paste hex to decode it, with or without spaces, commas or 0x prefixes.
- Or type text to encode it as hex.
- Choose the delimiter, prefix and letter case for the output.
Examples
48 65 6C 6C 6Fdecodes to Hello: 0x48 is H, 0x65 is e, 0x6C is l, 0x6F is o.caféencodes to63 61 66 c3 a9, because é takes two bytes in UTF-8.- With the 0x prefix and comma delimiter, Hi becomes
0x48, 0x69, ready for a C or JavaScript byte array.
Reading hex quickly
- Digits 0 to 9 are 0x30 to 0x39.
- Uppercase A to Z are 0x41 to 0x5A; lowercase a to z are 0x61 to 0x7A.
- Space is 0x20, line feed 0x0A, carriage return 0x0D.
- Bytes from 0x80 upward are part of multi-byte UTF-8 characters.
Troubleshooting
- Odd number of digits: every byte needs two hex digits; a missing digit shifts everything after it.
- Strange characters in output: the bytes are probably binary data or use another encoding such as Latin-1 or UTF-16.
- Invalid characters: only 0 to 9 and A to F are valid hex digits.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I convert hex to text?
Split the hex into pairs of digits, convert each pair to a byte and decode the bytes as UTF-8. This tool does it automatically.
Why does one character become several hex bytes?
Characters outside ASCII take two to four bytes in UTF-8.
Can I paste hex with spaces or 0x prefixes?
Yes. Common separators and prefixes are recognised and removed before decoding.
Why is the decoded text garbled?
The data may not be UTF-8 text. It could be binary data or use a different character encoding.