Hex Converter

Convert between hexadecimal and text, decimal or binary formats.

Convert hex values to readable text, decimal numbers or binary - and back again. If you're staring at a hex dump and need to make sense of it, this tool does the decoding for you. Works both ways, so you can also encode regular text into hexadecimal.

How Hex-to-Text Conversion Works

Every character has a numeric code in ASCII or Unicode. The letter "A" is 65 in decimal, which is 41 in hex. When someone sends you a hex string like 48 65 6C 6C 6F, that's the word "Hello" encoded as hex byte values. This converter reads those values and turns them back into text you can actually read.

When You'd Actually Need This

Reading hex dumps from debuggers or crash logs
Analyzing network packet captures in Wireshark
Working with binary file headers and magic numbers
Decoding hex-encoded data in CTF competitions
Converting CSS color codes like #FF5733 to RGB values
Inspecting cryptographic hashes and checksums

Hex vs. Binary vs. Decimal

These are all just different ways to write the same number. Decimal 255 equals hex FF equals binary 11111111. Hex is popular because it's compact - two characters per byte instead of eight in binary. That makes memory dumps and large data sets way easier to scan through.

Getting Gibberish? Here's Why

If your converted text looks like random symbols, the original data probably wasn't text at all. Binary files like images or executables contain raw byte data, not encoded words. Also check your encoding - UTF-8 and ASCII handle characters differently above the 127 range. Make sure the hex string only contains valid characters (0-9 and A-F).

How to Use

Paste your hex string or plain text into the input box.
Pick the conversion direction (hex to text or text to hex).
See your converted result instantly.
Copy the output with one click.

Frequently Asked Questions

What characters are valid in a hex string?

Only the digits 0-9 and the letters A through F (uppercase or lowercase both work). Each hex digit represents 4 bits, so a pair of hex digits equals one byte.

How does hex work in CSS color codes?

CSS colors use 6 hex digits split into 3 pairs: red, green and blue. #FF0000 is pure red (255 red, 0 green, 0 blue). #FFFFFF is white and #000000 is black. Some colors also use 8 digits where the last pair controls transparency.

Why does my hex-to-text output look like garbage?

The data you're converting probably isn't encoded text. Raw binary data from images, compressed files or executables will produce unreadable characters. Also double-check the encoding - UTF-8 and ASCII give different results for values above 127.

What's the difference between hex-to-text and hex-to-decimal?

Hex-to-text treats each pair of hex digits as a character code and gives you readable text. Hex-to-decimal does a math conversion - it turns the hex number into its base-10 equivalent. So hex 41 gives you "A" in text mode but 65 in decimal mode.

Can I convert hex color codes to RGB?

Split the 6-digit code into three pairs and convert each pair to decimal. For #FF5733: FF = 255 (red), 57 = 87 (green), 33 = 51 (blue) - so RGB(255, 87, 51).