Text encoding inspector and UTF-8 converter
Inspect a local text file’s BOM, bytes and strict UTF-8 validity. Preview an explicit source encoding and export UTF-8 without changing line endings.
Try a small example
Try a small example
Load the fictional example in a cleared form. Check the options, run the tool if needed, and compare the result below.
Select the original file, inspect its bytes, then confirm the source encoding. No BOM and valid UTF-8 means compatible bytes, not proof of the original encoding. The preview is read-only; conversion preserves characters, spaces and CR/LF line endings. A leading BOM selects its declared encoding. The signature is removed from the text; add an output BOM only if your receiving application requires it. No normalization, trimming, or newline conversion is applied. Plain-text files up to 5 MiB (5,242,880 bytes). UTF-8, UTF-16LE/BE, Windows-1252, ISO-8859-1 and ASCII only. UTF-32 BOMs, malformed sequences, undefined Windows-1252 bytes and binary/control-heavy content are refused. The preview is limited to 16,000 UTF-16 code units; the entire file is validated and exported. Output is always a .utf8.txt file.
First 64 bytes (hexadecimal)
43 61 66 E9 20 80 0D 0A
Expected output
Café €
The example is unavailable until the tool is ready.
Text is processed in your browser.
Share this tool
Only the tool’s public link is shared. Your inputs and results stay here.
Show link to copy manually
Quick answer
Select the original file, inspect its bytes, then confirm the source encoding. No BOM and valid UTF-8 means compatible bytes, not proof of the original encoding. The preview is read-only; conversion preserves characters, spaces and CR/LF line endings.
The page and its assets load from the site; this operation uses your entered values only in this browser and does not send them to a calculation endpoint.
How to use it
A leading BOM selects its declared encoding. The signature is removed from the text; add an output BOM only if your receiving application requires it. No normalization, trimming, or newline conversion is applied.
Limits
Plain-text files up to 5 MiB (5,242,880 bytes). UTF-8, UTF-16LE/BE, Windows-1252, ISO-8859-1 and ASCII only. UTF-32 BOMs, malformed sequences, undefined Windows-1252 bytes and binary/control-heavy content are refused. The preview is limited to 16,000 UTF-16 code units; the entire file is validated and exported. Output is always a .utf8.txt file.
Frequently asked questions
Can the tool identify any encoding automatically?
No. A supported BOM identifies a declared encoding; without a BOM, valid UTF-8 bytes indicate compatibility, not a unique encoding. If no default is available, choose the source encoding from the file’s documentation and check the expected text.
Why are Windows-1252 and ISO-8859-1 separate?
Windows-1252 assigns printable characters such as € to some bytes from 80–9F. ISO-8859-1 maps that range to C1 controls, which this text-only tool rejects. Undefined Windows-1252 bytes are also rejected.
Will conversion repair already broken text?
No. Conversion changes the encoding; it cannot recover previously lost text. If the source already contains U+FFFD replacement characters, they are preserved.
What stays unchanged?
No normalization, trimming, or newline conversion is applied. A leading BOM selects its declared encoding. The signature is removed from the text; add an output BOM only if your receiving application requires it.