How text becomes binary
Each character is first turned into bytes using UTF-8. English letters take 1 byte (A = 65 = 01000001), accented letters 2 bytes, and Hindi letters and most emoji 3–4 bytes. Each byte is then written as 8 binary digits (bits).
H = 72 = 01001000 · i = 105 = 01101001 → “Hi” = 01001000 01101001
Frequently asked questions
How do I read binary code?
Split it into groups of 8 bits and convert each group to a number (128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1 place values). The numbers are UTF-8 bytes that map to characters. This tool does it automatically.
Why does one emoji become 32 bits?
Most emoji need 4 bytes in UTF-8, and each byte is 8 bits.