Hex to text converter

Decode hex bytes into readable text.

Input

0 lines · 0 characters

Result

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Results update as you type.

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How to convert hex to text

Paste the hex into Input. Bytes can be separated by spaces, commas, colons or dashes, have 0x in front, or run together.
The decoded text appears in the result as you paste.
Copy the text, or switch to Text to hex to go the other way.

Decoding hex by hand

Take the digits two at a time. The first digit is worth 16 times its value and the second is worth its value, with A to F standing for 10 to 15. So 48 is 4 × 16 + 8 = 72, which is H in the ASCII table, and 6F is 6 × 16 + 15 = 111, which is o. Bytes from 20 to 7E are printable ASCII characters. Anything from 80 upwards is part of a multi-byte UTF-8 character, such as an accented letter or an emoji.

Where hex-encoded text turns up

Hex dumps and debugger output, where strings sit among other data.
Log files and database exports that store text as hex to keep odd characters safe.
Data from tools that separate bytes with colons or dashes, like 48:65:6c:6c:6f.
Capture-the-flag challenges and puzzles that hide a message in hex.

Questions

Why does it say a digit is missing or extra?

Every byte is two hex digits, so once separators are removed the count must be even. An odd count usually means a digit was lost when copying, or a byte like 0a was written as just a.

What do the � characters mean?

Those bytes aren’t valid UTF-8 text. The hex might be binary data, such as part of an image, or text in an older encoding like Windows-1252, where é is the single byte e9 instead of c3 a9.

Can I paste hex written as \x48\x69?

Not directly. 0x prefixes are removed for you, but backslash escapes aren’t. Use Find and replace to delete every \x first, then paste the result here.