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Instantly translate values between Binary, Decimal, Hexadecimal, and Octal formats. The essential translation tool for software engineers and network administrators. This free online tool allows you to convert number bases quickly and accurately. No sign-up or installation required.
Since childhood, humans are taught to count using the Decimal system (Base-10). We use ten unique digits (0 through 9). The likely reason for this is biological: humans evolved with ten fingers, making Base-10 the most intuitive way to count and calculate.
However, computers do not have fingers. Computers operate on microscopic transistors that act as switches. These switches only have two possible physical states: ON or OFF. Therefore, at the lowest hardware level, every piece of data on Earth—from the text in this article to high-definition video games—must be processed using the Binary system (Base-2), which consists exclusively of 1s and 0s.
Software developers frequently need to translate data between human-readable numbers and machine-readable data. Our calculator instantly converts between the four standard programming bases:
The standard human counting system using digits 0-9. Used in programming for user-facing outputs, mathematical calculations, financial transactions, and everyday logic.
The language of hardware, using only 0 and 1. While difficult for humans to read (e.g., the number 100 in binary is 1100100), it perfectly maps to logic gates and electrical circuits.
Uses digits 0-9 and letters A-F. Hexadecimal is incredibly useful because it massively compresses long binary strings into short, human-readable codes. Used heavily for color codes (e.g., #FFFFFF), MAC addresses, and memory addressing.
Uses digits 0-7. Historically used in early computing when systems had 12-bit or 24-bit words. Today, it is predominantly used in UNIX/Linux environments to set file and directory permissions (e.g., chmod 777).
Common questions regarding data translation, letters in math, and binary mechanics.