Unicode Converter

Unicode is the universal character encoding standard that assigns a unique code point to every character in every writing system — from Latin letters and Chinese characters to emoji and mathematical symbols. Unicode encoding converts human-readable text into machine-readable representations like \u escape sequences, HTML entities, UTF-8 byte sequences, and CSS escape codes.

This free Unicode Converter tool lets you encode any text into six popular Unicode formats and decode encoded strings back to readable text. Whether you are debugging internationalized web applications, preparing strings for JSON or JavaScript, or working with HTML entities, this tool handles the conversion instantly in your browser with no data sent to any server.

• Six encoding formats: \u escape, HTML decimal entities, HTML hex entities, UTF-8 hex bytes, Unicode code points, and CSS escapes
• Bidirectional conversion — encode text to any format or decode back to readable text
• Real-time processing — output updates instantly as you type
• Full Unicode support including emoji, CJK characters, and supplementary plane characters
• Surrogate pair handling for characters above U+FFFF in \u escape format
• Character and byte count display for input text
• File upload and download support
• One-click copy to clipboard
• Fullscreen mode for working with large texts
• 100% client-side — your data never leaves your browser

1. Choose Encode or Decode mode.
2. Select the target format from the dropdown: \u Escape, HTML Decimal, HTML Hex, UTF-8 Hex, Code Points, or CSS Escape.
3. Type or paste your text in the left panel. The converted result appears instantly in the right panel.
4. Use the swap button to switch modes and feed the output back as input.
5. Click Copy to copy the result, or Download to save it as a text file.

• \u Escape — JavaScript/JSON format like \u4F60\u597D. ASCII characters pass through unchanged. Characters above U+FFFF use surrogate pairs.
• HTML Decimal — Numeric character references like 你好. Used in HTML to represent characters that cannot be typed directly.
• HTML Hex — Hexadecimal character references like 你好. Functionally identical to decimal but more compact for large code points.
• UTF-8 Hex — Raw byte representation like \xE4\xBD\xA0\xE5\xA5\xBD. Shows the actual UTF-8 byte encoding of each character.
• Code Points — Standard Unicode notation like U+4F60 U+597D. Used in Unicode charts, documentation, and specifications.
• CSS Escape — CSS-compatible format like \4F60 \597D. Used in CSS content properties, selectors, and font declarations.

• Web development — encode special characters for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript source files
• API debugging — decode \u-escaped strings in JSON API responses and log files
• Internationalization — inspect and verify Unicode representations of multilingual content
• Email encoding — prepare non-ASCII characters for email headers and MIME content
• Database troubleshooting — identify and fix encoding issues with stored Unicode text
• Security analysis — decode obfuscated Unicode strings in malware analysis and XSS testing

• Use \u Escape format when preparing strings for JavaScript or JSON — it is the most widely supported escape syntax in programming
• Choose HTML Hex entities for web pages — they are more readable than decimal for large code points
• Use UTF-8 Hex to inspect the actual byte-level encoding of characters for debugging encoding issues
• Code Points format is ideal for looking up characters in the Unicode standard or communicating about specific characters
• CSS Escape is specifically designed for use in CSS stylesheets — remember the trailing space after each escape sequence
• ASCII characters below code point 128 are passed through unchanged in all formats, keeping the output readable

Unicode encoding plays a critical role in web security. Cross-site scripting attacks sometimes use Unicode escape sequences to bypass input filters — for example, encoding <script> as HTML entities to evade naive sanitizers. Understanding Unicode conversion helps security professionals identify and prevent such attacks.

This tool processes all data entirely in your browser. No text is sent to any server, stored in any database, or shared with any third party. You can safely use it with sensitive or proprietary content.