File to Binary.

Binary is the alphabet of two digits, 0 and 1, the bits a computer stores. Written out, a byte is eight digits: the letter A, 65, is 01000001. There is nothing to decode but the grouping, and nothing shorter: a binary string is eight times the size of the bytes it shows.

Every byte is written as its eight bits, most significant first, usually with a space between bytes so the groups can be read. The output is 700% larger than the input, eight digits for every byte. The decoder takes the digits with or without spaces, as long as there are eight per byte.

Learning how computers store text and numbers, reading a bit field or a flag byte, checking a protocol's bit layout, digital electronics homework, and showing a child what a letter looks like to a machine.

Technically, since it is only digits; practically no one sends a URL eight times longer than it needs to be.

It is the least efficient encoding by far and the only one that shows every bit. Use it to see or teach; use hex to read bytes at a glance and Base64 to carry them.

No. Binary is an encoding, not encryption: it changes how bytes are written, not who can read them, and anyone can decode it with no key. Encrypt first (AES, age, a library's sealed box) when the content needs protecting, then encode the ciphertext if it has to travel as text.

Drop the file onto the input or choose it with the button. Its bytes are encoded in your browser and the Binary appears in the result pane, with the size it grew to. Copy it, or download it as a text file.

Any file the browser can hold in memory works; a few hundred megabytes is fine, and the result is eight times the size.

Whatever needs the bytes as text: a lesson, a bit-layout check or a dump of the first bytes of a format. Binary is safe in a URL in principle, and it is eight times the size than the file, so it is for carrying bytes through text, not for storing them.

Nothing leaves your browser. The file is read into memory on your machine and the encoding is computed there, in plain JavaScript; the page makes no request with it. Load the page, go offline and it keeps working.

No. The "File to Binary" tool is free and opens without a sign-in, an account or an install.

Nothing. The "File to Binary" tool holds your input in the page's memory, so closing or reloading the tab clears it, and it saves nothing in this browser.

Any file the browser can open. The bytes are read in your browser and encoded as Binary; the result can be copied or downloaded as binary-encoded.txt.

Binary output is 8 characters per byte, 9 with the spaces between bytes, and the status line under the result shows the bytes in, the characters out and the percentage.

Use the Binary to file page: it decodes Binary back to the original bytes, and names the download after the file type it recognises.

Yes, the same choices as the text encoder: Spacing, a space between bytes or one run of digits.

Closest to the "File to Binary" tool: Binary to file, Binary encoder, Binary decoder, File to Hex. Each opens on its own page, free and in the browser.

The "File to Binary" tool is one of 32 in its group. The group's page, /tools/encoding, lists them all.

The tool is free. Its interface is built from shadcn.io's own components (Button, Input, Slider and the rest of the registry under /ui), which come in React, Vue, Svelte and Solid. Pro adds the blocks and templates for the product around it.